The Ten
by Percy Son of Neptune
Summary: There are only ten. A schoolboy. A princess. A jeweler. An archaeologist. A nerd. A blacksmith. A pilot. An actress. A soldier. And a leader. Ten people, ten bracelets, ten places across the globe. And only one year before everything ceases to exist.
1. The First Bracelet

**Ok, here's my new story, called The Ten. It's an AU story and there's no gods.**

**Enjoy Chapter One of The Ten.**

**Disclaimer: I am not Rick Riordan.**

* * *

I: THE FIRST BRACELET

It was a beautiful August day. A perfect day to be at the beach.

As seventeen-year-old Percy Jackson walked through his cabin door at Montauk, he took all of this in; the glistening of the sea, the calm but still noticeable breeze, the heat from the sun. Overall, it was a great day to be turning seventeen.

Percy's mother Sally was a few steps behind him, locking the door behind her. She carried a couple of beach towels and an umbrella in her left arm.

Percy strode off the porch, placing his snapback backwards on his head. Many people who didn't know Percy would peg him as a douchebag or one of those kids who thinks they have "swag," as people call it these days.

In truth, that wasn't the case at all. True, Percy hung out with the popular kids at his high school, and thus he was pegged as a jock, but that didn't stop him from becoming one of the most-liked kids in the eleventh grade. Because of his looks, Percy is always being chased by the girls in his school when he's single, so he was looking forward to all the attention he would get at the first day of school in a couple of weeks.

Sally Jackson sighed and gave a wry smile. Her son was growing up fast and every day he was starting to look more and more like his father. She followed Percy with her sparkling blue eyes as he got closer and closer to the water's edge.

Sally loved this beach. There were many reasons, but as Percy guessed correctly on several occasions, it was the beach where she had met Percy's father.

Percy took a turn and started to walk parallel to the water's edge. He had taken off his shoes and was now walking barefoot in the surf.

It was pretty late. Percy and his mom had just arrived at their cabin at Montauk and they decided to head out to the beach for an hour or so before heading in to clean the cabin up.

Percy knew it wasn't the time for swimming, but he didn't mind the calmness that came with walking along the beach.

Percy knew this beach like the back of his hand, which didn't come as a surprise since he'd been coming here for seventeen years. He took a look back towards his mother, but she wasn't paying attention as she was setting up the umbrella.

He turned his gaze back towards the front and immediately something shiny caught his eye a few yards away. Percy was pretty sure it wasn't there when he looked back, but he couldn't have been sure.

Percy walked quickly up to the shiny object and picked it up. It was a plain bracelet, but it seemed different somehow. A picture of a trident was etched into the silver and the bracelet felt ancient, although it looked perfectly new.

Seeing as no one else was on the beach, Percy slipped the bracelet over his wrist, claiming it as his own. To his surprise, the bracelet fit perfectly. A calm overcame the beach, which freaked Percy out a bit, but just as quickly the wind picked back up, so he forgot about it.

Percy kept walking along the beach, not knowing that in that moment his life had just changed forever.

* * *

Percy tossed and turned in his bed. It was a couple days after his birthday and he couldn't sleep. He was back in his own apartment, his new bracelet placed on his bedside table.

Percy sighed and turned over to look at his clock when he noticed a low glow in the room. It was coming from his laptop.

Reluctantly, Percy rose from his warm bed and walked over to his desk, where his laptop was positioned. Percy was pretty sure he had turned the laptop off, but it was a long day so he couldn't have been positive.

He flipped open the laptop, his hand immediately heading towards the power button when he stopped suddenly. A browser was open. Percy scrolled to the top of the browser. It was a webpage on the Empire State Building.

Percy was pretty sure he hadn't been looking at a webpage on the Empire State Building, and his mom was out of the apartment all day, so she hadn't used his laptop.

That wasn't even the weird part. Throughout the article several different words were highlighted.

_Roof,_ Percy read. _Bracelet, ten, lightning._

Percy kept reading, but none of the words made sense.

Two weeks later Percy was at school; in English class to be exact. It was the first day of the new year. Those weird occurrences happened five or six more times after he returned from Montauk. Each time he read through the words, trying to make sense of them. Each time he failed.

Now he was sitting in English class. The teacher did not have anything planned for the day as he wanted his students to get to know each other.

Percy was talking with a couple of his friends when some sixth sense told him to look up at the teacher. He was holding a conversation with some nerd about logic problems; a conversation Percy would normally ignore, but for some reason he stayed tuned in.

"…in ancient times," the teacher was saying. "It was common practice to hide sentences by using every other word as a red herring. They would mix it up every time, but as a commonality it came to be that every third word in a sentence, when read together, would give the code."

"So you would read every third word?" The nerd asked.

"Exactly."

Suddenly, it all clicked for Percy. He tuned back into his friends' conversation, convinced that he now knew what to do.

* * *

Percy's time came three days later. He was sleeping one night when he awoke suddenly. Sure enough, a glow was coming from his laptop.

Percy quickly opened the laptop up and he was met with the webpage of the Empire State Building, the same one as previously. There were several highlighted words throughout the page. Percy took a look at the first highlighted word on the window: _Meet._

The next two highlighted words didn't make sense but, just as his teacher had said, the third word clicked into place. _Me._

Percy's mind went into overdrive as he quickly got out a piece of paper and a pencil and wrote down every third word highlighted on the screen.

Once Percy reached the last highlighted word, he looked down at the sheet of paper and found a sentence written before him. It was a short sentence, but it made sense. Percy smiled to himself, proud that he had finally solved the puzzle. He took a quick look at his clock before heading back over to his bed. Percy would have to wait another day, but he was satisfied, knowing that one more day wouldn't hurt.

* * *

_Ding._ The elevator doors opened and Percy cautiously walked out into the cool air. The wind was surprisingly calm for how high Percy was. As he looked up, he could see the night sky being illuminated by the millions of stars that were brightly shining.

Percy took out his cell phone to look at the time and caught it turning from 11:59 to 12:00. It was midnight.

He put his cell phone away and looked around. He reached the roof's edge and was about to look down when he thought better of it. He was 102 floors up after all.

Percy was about to take his cell phone out to take a picture of the skyline when a voice spoke behind him.

"You finally came."

Percy whirled around, tense for a fight, when he noticed that the man was in a wheelchair. Percy's muscles relaxed and he took a step towards the man.

"_Meet me on the roof at midnight_," Percy remembered. "You sent that message?"

"I did," the old man replied. He had thinning brown hair and a scruffy beard. "We have business to talk about."

Now, normally Percy would be wary of meeting someone alone, on the top of the Empire State Building, and at midnight, but he figured he would be able to get away easily if he had to, so he dropped his guard for the time being.

"What kind of business would that entail?" He asked.

"You found that bracelet, correct?" The old man said, motioning towards Percy's left wrist.

"Yeah," Percy replied, subconsciously placing his right hand on his wrist, making sure the bracelet was still there.

"And the wind calmed when you put it on?"

"Yeah, it did." Percy shuddered at the thought. It was eerie how calm the weather had gotten at that moment.

"Then it's true."

"What's true?" Percy asked quickly, suddenly frightened.

"You are one of the ten," the old man said calmly. "And you're here to save the world once more."

That last sentence hit Percy like a wall of bricks.

"Sa-save the world?"

The old man nodded. "Once more," he said. "Make yourself comfortable. This is a long story."

* * *

"It was said that thousands of years ago one man sought to destroy Greece. He almost succeeded, had it not been for ten teenagers. These ten teens were able to bond together and defeat the power-hungry man. Residents throughout Greece would later recall that the ten teens seemed to have an aura about them, as if the gods were lending them their power."

Percy remembered studying about Ancient Greece in school. It was one of the few subjects that he actually enjoyed. The gods were all-powerful in that era. They were the reason life was the way it was.

"In order to distinguish friend from foe, when the ten teens reached the capital of Athens they had a silversmith make them each a bracelet. Each bracelet was inscribed with a certain symbol, which represented the wearer."

Percy looked down at his wrist, the trident etched in silver easily seen among the starlight.

"Within a few days, people started to recognize the teens' strength and courage and they became known as The Ten. No one knew their names. They were ten kids from ten different towns and ten different backgrounds wearing ten different bracelets. After their success in the final battle, they were forever recognized as the greatest warriors in Greece's history. They have yet to be forgotten."

Percy looked down at his bracelet before looking back up at the old man.

"And you think they've come back," Percy said slowly, "to save the world again?"

"Precisely. It was prophesized in ancient times that he who found the first bracelet would be the only person capable of bringing together the other nine in order to save Greece from destruction once more."

"So they knew it was going to happen again?" Percy asked.

"Yes," the old man said simply. "However, after the first battle was finished, no one ever heard from The Ten again. The bracelets were scattered across Greece, never to be seen again."

Percy was silent for a long time. The story seemed like something out of a folk tale.

"Every couple hundred years something would pop up around Greece. Little tidbits about each of the ten would pop up, but it wouldn't connect and come to fruition."

"So everyone was left wondering."

"Exactly," the old man said. "One of my ancestors was a guy by the name of Chiron, a guy whom I'm named after."

"Chiron? Like _the _Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and whatnot? You're named after him?"

The old man chuckled as if enjoying a joke. "Yes. I am named after _the _Chiron, the trainer of Hercules."

Percy now looked at the old man from a different view. It was a connection that Percy could finally recognize. Percy was suddenly held in awe.

"Very well," Chiron said. "Onto business."

"Business?" Percy asked, surprised.

"Yes, business. When did you find that bracelet?"

That caught Percy by surprise. "Uh, my birthday, August 18th."

"I see," Chiron said. "Then you have one year from then in order to gather the other nine, find their bracelets, and save the world."

"Whoa, whoa, back up. What do you mean _I _have to gather everyone else? Why can't _you _do it?"

"_You_ are one of The Ten. _You _are the one who found the first bracelet. Therefore, _you_ must be the one to gather the troops."

Percy gulped. "And I only have one year?"

Chiron nodded. "Well, a little less than a year now, but yes."

That didn't make Percy feel any better.

"However, I _can _provide you some help."

"Like what?" Percy asked.

"If you're travelling all over the world, you're going to need money to pay for the travel." Percy understood now. He wasn't rich. There was no way he could possibly pay for all of this travel. "You should find something in the mail to help you with that soon."

Percy gulped once more. "Anything else?"

"Of course," Chiron said calmly. "You can't just travel the world without a destination in mind."

"Wait," Percy cut in. "You know where the other nine are?"

"I didn't say that," Chiron replied with a shake of his head. "Like I said, nothing is known about The Ten. They haven't been heard from since those ancient times. But I do know one thing."

"What's that?"

"You must seek out the princess of lightning."

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, what did you guys think? I pretty much got right into the story. Actually this had been chapters one and two up until yesterday, but then I decided on combining them. You can thank me for that.**

**You can probably already guess who the princess is. It's pretty obvious actually.**

**The other eight aren't as easy to guess. Well, at least according to their occupation that I said in the summary.**

_I will start this challenge right now: The first person to correctly match each person with their occupation stated in the summary will get the story dedicated to them. That's right, the story. Not just a single chapter, but the entire story. You guys already know two, or at least I think you know two, but the other eight are not as easy to guess. Good luck._

**Now for some news. Chapter Two of The Ten will be out sometime next week. I'm unsure of when right now, but it will be out next week.**

**I have made some major changes to my website. Head over to my profile and check it out. The link is there.**

**Speaking of my profile, I added something this past week that you guys might like. It's called _PSON's Guide to a Great Story_ and I outline the seven key things I think are needed in order to have a successful story. While you're on my profile you might as well check it out.**

**Since this is a new story, you might not be familiar with what I do here. Every chapter I ask a Question of the Chapter to my readers. This can be anything from things about your life to a trivia question relating to Percy and the crew. If you read my other stories you can catch a glimpse of what I'm talking about.**

**Here is the Question of the Chapter for Chapter One: If you could sit on one throne on Olympus without harm (including the minor gods) whose throne would you sit on and why?**

**Let's see. I'd have to say Athena's. And yes, I did just take five minutes to think about that. I'd have to say Athena over the rest of them because I've always wondered how she thought about certain things. It would be interesting to think about something from her point of view. It would be like being Annabeth for a day. Also, I'm intrigued about what her domain would be. For instance, when Percy sat on his dad's throne, he felt the power of the sea behind him. I wonder what you would feel if you sat on Athena's throne.**

**Ok, there's my answer. Now you guys tell me. Whose throne and why.**

**Make sure to review!**

**Thanks!**

**-Percy, Son of Neptune**


	2. Seeking Out The Princess of Lightning

**We are back for Chapter Two. Thanks so much for all of the reviews and everyone who gave me their guess for the occupations. I am now writing this author's note for the second time as my internet decided to bail on me right before I saved this and thus I lost everything. Yeah, thanks so much for that. Note the sarcasm. Anyway, onto the news.**

**First off, I am terribly sorry for not stating this in the first chapter, but it seemed like many of you picked up on it anyway. This story will be completely written in THIRD PERSON, so there will not be any point of views from any of the characters. This is different then all of my other stories and I hope it will help make this one unique.**

**Secondly, I am sad to say that the challenge is over. I figured out that it was actually pretty easy by the sixth review. Therefore I'm going to change up the rules a little bit. I have now ended the challenge and I will not accept any further entries. There will be no exceptions other than the couple of people who have been away and have not yet gotten the chance to read this story (you know who you are).**

**Let's move onto the winner. The winner of my challenge is (drum roll please): JazzApples. She was the first person to correctly match each occupation with its correct character. Congrats to her. This story is now dedicated to you. As winner of this challenge, JazzApples will now receive sneak peeks into every chapter from here on out before it is released. I will also somehow formally dedicate the story to her, although I am not quite sure how yet. Again congratulations and you can expect a PM from me sometime this week.**

**Also, since we happened to have multiple winners, I've decided to reward them for their smarts and for correctly guessing the occupations. The following people in the next paragraph will each have their own chapter dedicated to them as well as a sneak peek into their dedicated chapter.**

**Without further ado, the remaining winners are: RoyalGreyFeather, AugustSummer, ClaraoftheSea, Marionette of Ancient Relics, GetLostInTheMusic and Tajee165. If you see your name here, could you please send me a PM confirming and I will be sure to let you know which chapter will be dedicated to you.**

**Wow, this is a very long Author's Note, so let's wrap this up. We join back up with Percy here after his conversation with Chiron.**

**Enjoy Chapter Two of The Ten.**

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan wouldn't dedicate one of his stories to a Fanfictioner, would he?**

* * *

II: SEEKING OUT THE PRINCESS OF LIGHTNING

Percy was struggling. Every time he typed "princess of lightning" into the search bar of Google, he would get results about lightning or princesses, but nothing connecting the two.

On the bright side of things, he read an amazing story on the internet called The Princess and the Peasant. Percy had to give the author props for distracting him for such a long period of time.

Percy could also probably tell you everything about lightning strikes now. Anything from what they look like to where they struck to how many deaths they cause per year Percy knew. Not that he really wanted to, but nevertheless Percy was now gifted in the art of lightning strikes.

Percy sighed. This was getting nowhere. He erased the search bar. _How to google something,_ he typed.

"Really, Perce?"

Percy turned around to find his mother standing in the doorway.

"What?" He responded.

"Did you really type 'How to google something' into Google?"

Percy looked back at his screen. Wow, that really made him look like an idiot, didn't it?

"No, that's not what I meant," he told his mom. "I'm trying to search for something specific, but I'm not getting anywhere. Do you know how to do that?"

Sally Jackson looked at her son.

"I'm not quite getting what you're asking," she said to him.

"Ok." Percy quickly cleared the search bar and retyped _princess of lightning_. "So, when I search for the princess of lightning, it always gives me information about princesses or lightning, but that's not what I'm looking for."

"Why are you looking for things about princesses in the first place? That's not really your thing, Perce."

Percy froze. He hadn't told his mother about any of this yet.

"Uh, one of my friends told me to look it up. Said it would be something I would enjoy. I don't really believe him though."

Sally looked at her son unconvincingly. "Well, if you want to search for 'princess of lighting' just like that, put quotes around it. That'll tell Google you want to search specifically for that."

"Ok, thanks mom."

"No problem Percy." Sally began to walk out the door, but then she remembered why she had come to her son's room in the first place. "Oh, and dinner is going to be ready in ten minutes. Well, probably five now."

"Ok, thanks mom."

Sally noticed that was the second time her son had said that phrase in the past twenty seconds, so she wondered if he had heard her at all. Sally shrugged. The smell of food would eventually drag him down to the kitchen.

Percy had, in fact, heard his mother. He was just too busy looking at the new results that had popped up on his screen.

Percy clicked on the first website, a Wikipedia page on some girl.

Percy read the first two sentences.

_Princess Thalia Grace is the great-granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. She is commonly known as the princess of lighting._

Percy gulped and quickly went back to look at the other webpages. Each one produced the same result. There were no other webpages about a princess of lightning. There were other news articles, but they would just be about the princess participating in various archery tournaments.

"Percy!" He heard his mom yell. "Are you going to come eat or not?"

"Yeah mom!" He yelled back. "I'll be right there."

Percy took one last quick look at his laptop screen before closing it.

He really hoped Chiron came through with the money problem. He would need it.

He was heading to London, after all.

* * *

_Please head back to your seats. We are about to start our descent into Heathrow._

Percy took one last glance at his laptop before turning it off and stowing it in his backpack. He took a look out the window, but truthfully he couldn't see much. Nighttime was approaching London.

Percy took a look at his watch, which read 8:32 PM, and sighed. He had a lot to do tonight. Percy had already confirmed his tour of Buckingham Palace the following morning, but he knew he should double-check when he got to his hotel.

The plane landed with only a couple of bumps and soon Percy was making his way through the terminal. As he made his way towards the car rental he passed baggage claim, which was crowded with tourists waiting for their bag. Percy was glad he took Chiron's advice and only packed using a backpack. Stopping to wait for his suitcase would just slow him down. He was on a tight schedule after all.

Percy snaked his way through the crowd and eventually made it to the car rental area. He checked his wallet to make sure the credit card from Chiron was still there before continuing.

The golden credit card had come in the mail a couple days ago, all ready for use. The sixteen digit number was clearly labeled and _Perseus Jackson_ gleamed at the bottom of the card. Chiron had also sent a note in which he told Percy to ignore the possibility of maxing out the card. That would be taken care of for him.

Percy got his keys to his rental car and headed out to the parking garage located outside the airport. He unlocked his car, a new white BMW 328i, and without thinking took a seat in the driver's seat. Still fumbling with the keys, he managed to place his backpack in the seat next to him. Percy finally got ahold of the keys and he looked up where he found no steering wheel. His feet felt no pedals either.

Percy then took a look to his right, waited a second, and then, as any American would do, opened the door and walked over to the other side, the right side of the car.

Percy opened the _actual_ driver's side door and quickly got in, moving his backpack to the opposite side as he did so.

Luckily the BMW he chose wasn't a manual. Percy didn't think he would be able to drive stick having the stick shift on his left rather than his right. He started the car and pulled slowly out of the garage.

It was a good thing Percy had the experience with getting in the wrong side of the car. It reminded him that they drove on the left side of the road here in the UK. Good thing too, because Percy almost caused an accident and that was driving on the _left_ side of the road.

Percy soon made it to his hotel, a simple, wood cabin look-a-like. It was pretty small, only ten or so rooms, but it fitted Percy well. He wasn't trying to make a big name of himself here anyway.

As Percy made his way into the lobby, he saw that the tree theme was held consistent. The tables in the lobby were actually large stumps and the seats were made out of a light-colored wood. The receptionist desk looked just like a fallen tree with the bark on the outside, but it was cut in half hot dog style and polished nice and clean until it shined.

Percy got the key to his room and he placed his backpack down on his bed before deciding on heading for a late-night swim at the pool, which was sure to relax him.

An hour later he returned to his room. Percy got a quick shower before hitting the sheets. He had a big day coming up after all.

* * *

Percy woke with the sun and quickly made his way down to the restaurant to have breakfast. Three scoops of scrambled eggs, one blueberry waffle and eight strips of bacon later Percy was ready to take on the day.

Percy headed back to his room and got dressed, making sure not to wear anything _too _American. If he was going to speak with the princess, he probably shouldn't boast that he was American.

Percy grabbed his backpack and made his way back out to his car. Making sure to get in the correct side, Percy tossed his backpack into the passenger seat. He checked behind him and then to both sides before backing out of his spot. Percy had talked to the receptionist and she had suggested driving to a parking garage before hopping on the public buses to take to the palace. She had also said that the parking around the palace was horrible, so it probably would be quicker to take the bus anyway.

Percy managed to find a parking garage on Oxford Street, which actually wasn't too far from the palace. Percy paid the £25 parking ticket, which Percy thought was outrageous. He was only spending a few hours in the parking lot at most.

Percy hopped on one of London's famous double-decker buses, obviously heading to the top level to get a good look of London. Percy followed the street signs as they passed along the Mall. Within the minute Percy could see Buckingham Palace gleaming directly in front of him.

Percy could see thousands of people were standing in front of the palace by the Victoria Memorial, a sculpture dedicated to their longest reigning monarch, Queen Victoria. Its marble base looked very solid and it towered above many of the people craning their necks trying to see the statue at the top.

The bronze statue of Queen Victoria on the top gleamed from a distance like it was made of gold. There were smaller bronze statues underneath the queen, but Percy couldn't tell what they were at his distance.

Percy got off the double-decker at the entrance to the palace and stopped to marvel in its iconic beauty before following the crowd to the tour entrance.

Percy had to wait around an hour before he got into a tour, but when he was allowed through he couldn't help but be awed by the interior beauty.

"Buckingham Palace measures 108 by 120 meters," the tour guide was saying, "and it contains more than 77,000 meters squared of floor space. That's over 830,000 square feet for you Americans."

That got a short laugh out of the crowd, but Percy wasn't entertained. Apparently he got stuck with an anti-American tour group.

"We are now moving into the Picture Gallery. Please enjoy works from several of the world's renowned painters, including Rembrandt, van Dyck, Rubens, and Vermeer."

Percy wasn't really one for ancient art, but he had heard of Rembrandt and Vermeer. They were pretty famous names. Now, Percy couldn't have told you their first names, but most artists are known by their last names anyway.

While most of the other tourists were staring at the various pictures from the famous artists, Percy wandered over to one in particular, a picture of what looked to be a princess.

The girl in the picture looked to be around fifteen or sixteen years old. Her black hair was let down so it reached her shoulders and her electric blue eyes were staring intently towards the viewer, as if challenging them to a battle.

She was wearing a pale green dress and she was sitting in front of what looked to be a pine tree. The pine tree seemed to have something etched into the wood, but it was hard to make out. The sky behind her was clear with only the occasional cloud. A hint of a smile played on her lips, but overall her complexion was very serious.

Her hands were crossed in her lap, her left hand holding a bow and her right holding a single arrow. The girl was obviously an archer.

Percy wouldn't have called her beautiful, but the girl definitely had an air of attractiveness to her.

"That's Princess Thalia Grace," a voice said from behind him. Percy turned to find the tour guide standing behind him. "She's known as the princess of lighting. She was actually the one to engrave the lightning bolt in the tree behind her when she was twelve."

Percy turned back to the painting, the lightning bolt now discernable in the tree. He turned back to the tour guide.

"Any chance we could meet her?" He asked.

"It's highly unlikely," the tour guide responded. "But we have seen her here before, so it is always possible."

Percy turned back to the painting, hoping that today was one of the times she decided to hang in the palace.

The tour guide called out that they were supposed to keep moving, so Percy took one last look at the princess before heading off to follow the group.

"Right now we're walking through the Green Drawing Room, which serves as a huge anteroom to the Throne Room, which we'll be visiting next."

Percy perked up at the words _Throne Room _and made his way towards the front of the group. He might only get one chance to talk with the princess. He had to make it count.

Their group walked into the Throne Room just as another walked out. Percy looked around and saw that several people had stayed behind from the other group, but they all looked like they were workers. As Percy scanned the room he found that no one was dressed elegantly. In fact, other than the tour group, it looked like everyone else in the room was male.

Percy sighed. It looked like he'd be here in London for a while. It would be his luck that he wouldn't spot the princess.

Percy sighed once more before walking sullenly through the rest of the tour. He hopped back on a double-decker and headed back to the parking garage.

* * *

_Twang, thump._

"Another bulls-eye. It looks like you're ready for the championships, my lady."

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, what did you think? Percy hasn't found Thalia yet, but she's sure to make an appearance next chapter.**

**Since the above author's note was so long, I'll try to be brief here.**

**A new chapter of The Prince, The Girl and The World will be up later today if you haven't seen it yet. The next chapter of Scars and Recognition will also be up on Thursday, so check for that when you get the chance.**

**I hope you guys liked my TPATP reference. It was intended to give you a short laugh at the beginning of the chapter. If you don't know what I'm talking about, head over to my profile and check the 'Trivia' section.**

**Next chapter of The Ten will be out next week. Just like I said last chapter, I am currently unsure of when, but stay tuned on my Twitter updates and the answer will be resolved for you.**

**Onto the Question of the Chapter: Would you rather have to face Percy Jackson or Luke Castellan in battle?**

**Whew, toughie here. I'd prefer neither, but since I have to give you an answer I'd say Luke, maybe. Yeah, Luke. Percy's too good for his age and Luke might be out of his prime? I don't know. Give me your input and I'll try to give you an answer. How about this, Percy if we're battling in the Sahara Desert. Luke any other time. Good enough?**

**Now, make sure you review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	3. The London Archery Championships Get Int

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter! I'm ecstatic to say that over the weekend I passed the 1000 review mark for all of my stories! A huge thank you goes out to anyone who has reviewed any of my stories. I couldn't thank you enough. Now onto 2000 and beyond.**

**As thanks, I will be uploading at least four chapters of various stories this week, including this one. I'm thinking of doing Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, but that's subject to change.**

**Speaking of reviews, we are doing really well with them on this story. Let's see, can we get to 110 by Friday?**

**Last chapter I asked you guys if you'd rather fight Percy or Luke. The results are in and most of you said Percy (12 to 7). A lot of you mentioned his kindness and willingness to let you live if you would lose. Can't disagree with you there.**

**Now we move onto the chapter itself. This chapter is dedicated to Marionette of Ancient Relics and of course the story is still dedicated to JazzApples.**

**Enjoy Chapter Three of The Ten.**

**Disclaimer: I do not live in Boston. I don't think I've ever been to Boston, now that I think about it.**

* * *

III: THE LONDON ARCHERY CHAMPIONSHIPS GET INTERESTING

Two days passed and Percy still had nothing. He had done vigorous research on the Internet about Princess Thalia, but he hadn't come up with anything.

Percy decided he needed a break, so he went out for a walk on the streets of London. He grabbed his jacket as it was pretty windy outside. Also, it was London weather, so even in the summer it was still somewhat chilly compared to back home.

He stopped by a Starbucks to pick up something to drink. As he walked out Percy heard chanting coming from his left. As he turned to look, he found a bunch of people dressed up in blue jerseys, soccer jerseys to be exact. They looked like they were heading off towards a game. Percy knew that over here in Europe most countries had their soccer seasons over the winter, rather than over the summer like in America, so their season was probably just starting.

He turned away from the supporters and immediately ran into someone. Percy managed to save his drink, but the man sprawled out on the ground.

"Oh my gods," Percy said, extending his arm to the man to help him up. "I'm so sorry. Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, thank you," the guy replied, dusting himself off. Percy thought he looked to be around his age, maybe a little older. He had sandy blonde hair and blue eyes. He was well built, just like Percy was, and he looked pretty tan, which was weird to see in a city like this.

"I'm so sorry," Percy said, trying to apologize again.

"It's fine," the man replied, looking up at Percy for the first time. His eyes narrowed for a second, but then they quickly returned to normal which made Percy wonder if it actually happened. "What's your name, young man?"

"Percy. Percy Jackson," he replied, but he was still confused. Why did he call him 'young man?' The guy was barely older than he was. "And yourself?"

"Call me Fred," the man replied, extending his hand, which Percy shook. "It was nice talking with you, Percy. I'll see you around. Beware the time. It will run out eventually." And with that Fred disappeared, walking past Percy and blending in with the London crowd.

What just happened, Percy thought? He had run into this guy, presumably by coincidence, and then he walks away like it's nothing. And what did he say? Beware the time? What did that mean? He couldn't have possibly known who he was, could he?

Percy decided to let it go for the time being. He had other problems to worry about at the moment, which mainly included a certain princess.

Percy turned away from the direction Fred went and he immediately focused on a flyer stapled onto a telephone pole. It read, _London Archery Championships_. And underneath, _Friday and Saturday only! Come out and watch your local archers battle for a local championship!_ It listed a bunch of names of participants underneath, including the princess's name. Percy ripped the flyer off the pole and checked his phone. The finals were happening this afternoon. He walked back to his hotel and got ready to head out for the archery championships.

Three hours later he was sitting in the stands of the finals of the London Archery Championships. The stands were packed, so Percy was lucky that he even got a seat. The four finalists were announced and luckily for him Thalia had made it to the finals. Percy studied her as she walked in.

She looked just like her picture in the palace, except for a few things. She looked a little older, around his age, but Percy expected that. Her picture in the palace wouldn't be exactly up to date, so naturally she would be a little older than she was in her painting. Her black hair was cropped shorter than in the painting and it was pulled up into a ponytail, surely because of the event she was about to take place in. She was wearing archery clothing instead of a dress and a protective shield like armor was covering her left wrist and forearm, surely to protect against the slap of the bowstring when it was released.

She looked up in the stands and Percy swore she looked straight at him, but then she waved and a girl two rows in front of him waved back.

Thalia turned back as the announcer opened the warm-up. People started to cheer as the four archers each stepped up to a target and began their warm-up routine.

Percy looked up at the top of the arena towards the flag and noticed it was flapping pretty steadily in the breeze. He looked back down at the various archers and noticed they were struggling with the heavy wind. Most of their shots were heading left of the bulls-eye. Not by much, but he knew as they moved further away it would just get more difficult.

He focused on Thalia for the most part and he noticed that she was struggling just as much as the other three archers were. But Percy also noticed that she was the only one who had taken a couple steps backwards to try to acclimate herself to the wind back at a farther distance.

Ten minutes later the actual competition started. The archers seemed to be struggling just as much as they had in warm-up, but Thalia seemed like she was gaining a slight advantage. That all changed however when the wind died suddenly and she missed the target completely.

The wind continued to be sporadic as the competition went on. One second it would be a solid breeze and the next it would disappear completely. Percy could tell the archers were trying to come up with a way to consistently get points without having to worry about missing the target if the wind died. They all seemed to be struggling, but at least no one was gaining an advantage from it.

Going into the last round Thalia was leading by one point over second place. Third and fourth were three and five points back, respectively.

They went in reverse order for the last round, so Thalia would be shooting last. The fourth place person only got a five, so as long as Thalia hit the target she would place and receive a medal. The third place archer hit a seven, a little more worrying, but still Thalia only needed four to tie and that wasn't that difficult.

The current second-place guy stepped up and just about pured his last shot, a nearly perfect arrow. Judges had to be brought in, it was so close to being a bulls-eye, a ten pointer.

"Nine points!" The judge announced. Cheering arose from the crowd and Percy took a look over at Thalia, who was concentrating fiercely. She now needed a nine or ten in order to be crowned champion. An eight would tie her and anything lower would give her second place. The pressure was on the princess now.

Thalia stepped up, drawing an arrow from her quiver and placing it on the bowstring. She drew the bow, drawing back the bowstring as she did so. Thalia made some little adjustments based off the wind and then she let her shot go.

_Twang, thump._ The arrow wasn't sticking out of the direct center, but it looked close. Percy wasn't aware of it at the time, but he found himself praying that it was a nine-pointer. The tension in the arena rose as the judges were brought in once more.

"Eight points!" They announced. Thalia's head dropped in frustration, but then quickly rose once more.

"It looks like we are to have an arch-off in this year's tournament!"

Thalia shook hands with the two eliminated competitors and then stood next to the announcer in the center of the arena.

"Very well! Three shots to determine our winner, but first," the announcer said. Thalia and the other finalist nodded and stepped up to a target. They each let go a single shot in order to determine who went first and who went second. Thalia had the higher single shot, so she would go last.

"As I was saying, each contestant will have three shots. The competitor with the higher total at the end of the three shots will be our winner! If we're still tied after three shots we will go on a shot-by-shot basis until we have determined our champion. Lance, you're up first."

The Lance guy stepped up to the target and after a few adjustments let his first shot go.

"Nine points!"

Thalia followed him, but the wind seemed to pick up as she drew her bow. Her shot flew through the air.

"Seven points!"

Percy found himself biting his fingernails, something he normally didn't do. After one round the princess was already two points behind.

The Lance guy stepped up once more.

"Eight points!"

Lance looked down in frustration. If he had gotten a nine or ten he would have been assured a lead heading into the final round. Now that was in jeopardy.

Thalia stepped up, her face beaded in sweat and concentration. Everyone in the stands could see the tip of her tongue sticking out of her mouth as she concentrated.

Thalia drew back her bow and her one eye closed. She measured the wind coming from her right and waiting for the right time as it died down. There, she thought, and released. Thalia knew it was good as soon as it left her bow.

"Bulls-eye! Ten points!"

Thalia grinned in response. They were tied going into the last round. There was no way she was going to let this guy beat her.

"Ten points!"

"Ten points!" Here we go with sudden death, Percy thought.

"Nine points!"

"Nine points!"

"Ten points!"

"Bulls-eye! Ten points!"

"Eight points! No, wait. Nine points!"

Thalia stepped up, wanting to end this now and forever. The wind had surprisingly died down for the sudden death, so the two of them had been hitting perfect or nearly perfect shots, but now for her shot the wind had picked up once more and it didn't look like it was stopping.

Thalia lined up her arrow, adjusting to the right to compensate for the wind. Thalia was about to let it go when she stopped herself and adjusted a little more to the right. The arena was completely silent as she let her arrow go. The _twang _could be heard clearly around the arena.

Thalia wasn't sure as the arrow imbedded itself in the target. It was definitely at least a nine-pointer, but it was awfully close to a bulls-eye. As the judges crowded around the target, Thalia hoped it was touching the line. She knew touching the line constituted a bulls-eye and she knew by the judges' reactions that it was close.

"Ten points! We have a new winner!"

Thalia fell to her knees, her bow falling out of her hand as the crowd erupted in cheers. She had just won the London Archery Championships, her life-long dream.

Percy stood with the crowd, acknowledging the new champion. Thalia eventually made it to her feet and she waved her thanks at the crowd before walking over to accept her new trophy and the gold medal. She brandished the trophy above her head before she walked to the side to hand off her trophy. After the trophy was safely in the hands of a palace official, Thalia walked over to the stands to sign some autographs. Percy quickly stood up and made his way to the edge of the stands to get in line, his sharpie and notepad in hand. He didn't really need the princess's autograph, but it gave him a chance to talk with her.

Thalia signed autographs for ten minutes or so, slowly making her way towards Percy, but eventually she knew she had to cut herself off and she did that now.

Percy was panicking as the princess started to walk away. He had to think of something quickly.

"Thalia!" He yelled, hoping to get her attention.

Thalia turned, surprised, and found a guy of around her age staring at her. He had jet black hair that was quite messy and sea green eyes like the ocean. He was tanned and well built. Overall, she thought he was quite the attractive guy, so she walked back to his outstretched arms when she noticed the bracelet on his left wrist. It couldn't be, could it?

Thalia had to think quickly, but she was normally good at that. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around the guy's neck. The wind died suddenly, but picked right back up.

Percy jumped in surprise. This was not what he expected at all.

"Quick, what's your name?" The princess whispered in his ear.

"Percy," he replied in the same hushed tone. "But why-"

"No time to explain. Follow my lead." Thalia jumped back down, but still held his hand. "Percy!" She said out loud. "Where have you been? I haven't seen you since preschool!"

Luckily Percy was a quick thinker as well.

"I know!" He replied. "I've missed you so much! After I moved, I never thought I'd see you again."

"What are you doing here?" The princess asked.

"We're on vacation. When I saw the notice about you participating in this tournament, I knew I had to come."

"Well, come on down!" Thalia said. Percy gave her a look, but the princess nodded. She turned towards the security guards as Percy swung his right leg over the railing. This was turning out much better than he expected. "Let him though," Thalia told the guards. "He's with me."

The security guards did as she asked and Percy jumped down to the arena floor. Thalia wrapped her right arm around his waist and after a jump Percy wrapped his left arm around her shoulder.

"Keep up the act," Thalia whispered. "Until we're inside."

Percy smiled at her, but Thalia was too busy looking at the bracelet on Percy's left wrist.

The second they got into the changing room, Thalia broke away from Percy. Her expression turned serious.

"Where did you get that bracelet?" She interrogated.

"Uh, on a beach, in New York," Percy stuttered, surprised by the sudden change of personalities.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Absolutely positive."

Thalia snorted, unconvinced.

"You're coming with me, Percy."

"Where are we going?" He asked.

"To the museum. I need to make sure that you haven't stolen the bracelet that's there."

* * *

Percy wanted to ask questions right away, but Thalia cut him off, saying she had to change, and pushed him out of the room. Fifteen minutes later Thalia opened the door. She was back in a dress. Thalia walked past Percy, who was sitting on the floor, and ordered him to follow her.

Percy followed the princess to a limo and he jumped in after her as the driver opened the door.

The second the door shut, Thalia turned on him.

"Explain yourself. Why do you have a bracelet just like the one in the museum?"

Percy took a breath. This was it. The chance he wanted.

"You're the princess of lightning, right?"

The question seemed to throw Thalia off.

"Yes, I've been called that." Thalia paused. "Why?"

"I needed to make sure. You were the person I was looking for."

"What do you mean?"

Percy took another breath. How was he supposed to explain this?

"I'm supposed to save the world," he started. "Along with nine other teenagers. You were first in line."

"Whoa, whoa, back up," the princess replied. "What are you talking about?"

Percy sighed once more and then told her the story of how he found the bracelet and then the puzzle and the meeting with Chiron.

"There's ten bracelets," he said. "Each one is supposed to go with one of the ten people. I've got mine and I need to find the other nine."

"But why me?" Thalia asked. "I'm a princess. You're just a lonely schoolboy, aren't you?"

"Yeah," Percy replied, trying not to be offended. "But Chiron said that each of the ten came from a different background, so it would be expected that each of the ten this time would be from a different background as well."

"I guess that makes sense." The princess paused. "So you're saying this bracelet in the museum is mine?"

"I don't see why it shouldn't be. You said your ancestor found it?"

"Yeah, my great-great-great-great-great grandmother. Queen Victoria."

"Queen Victoria found it?" Thalia nodded. "Ok, we're going to check it out now, right?"

"Yeah, we're almost at the museum." Percy nodded and the silence drew out for several seconds before Percy spoke again.

"So, Thalia," Percy said. The princess looked up at him. "Do you believe me? Do you understand how critical my situation is?"

"I'm not sure yet, Percy," she replied timidly. "I want to see the one at the museum before making a decision."

"Ok, I can agree with that. How about we exchange phone numbers? I'm sure you'll need some time to think this over and pack if necessary."

Thalia agreed and the two of them exchanged phone numbers, being sure to put in the international codes.

They made it to the museum and Thalia immediately took off towards the entrance, Percy following close behind. The two of them made it through security without a hitch and Thalia made her way through the crowded sections, not bothering to stop until she reached the bracelet.

"There it is," Thalia said, as if she couldn't believe it was actually there.

"Look," Percy pointed. "A lightning bolt."

Sure enough, etched on the bracelet was a lightning bolt, in the exact same spot as Percy's trident.

"You're right." Thalia seemed to be thinking. She eventually came to a decision. "Come on, let's go. I need to think about this."

The two of them exited the museum and they headed back to the limo. Thalia dropped Percy off at his hotel before driving off.

* * *

The next night, Percy got a call on his phone. He answered right away.

"Percy, it's me. I'm at the corner of Brook and Davies. Hurry up."

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, what did you think? Percy and Thalia have now met and it looks like she needs his help. Read on to find out more.**

**Chapter 4 will be out on Friday. That's right, this Friday, so be sure to check it out.**

**Next chapter of The Prince, The Girl and The World will be out tomorrow and a new chapter of Scars and Recognition will be out on Wednesday or Thursday. Not exactly sure yet when. Stay tuned for updates.**

**In other news, I have added one more point to PSON's Guide to a Great Story. Check it out if you have the time.**

**Onto the Question of the Chapter: Would you rather attend Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter and why?**

**Let's see, I'd rather attend both but if I had to pick one, I'd have to say CHB. I'd love to attend CJ, but I think it would be too disciplined. I'm too lazy of a person to attend a disciplined institution like that. I would also love to attend Camp Half-Blood because I think it has more to offer than Camp Jupiter, although many of you may disagree with me. I love Capture the Flag as well as the chariot races and the climbing wall. My memory may be failing me, but all I remember of Camp Jupiter is the war games that are held every week or so. They seem to be the same thing over and over again, so I'd like to have a little bit of variety in my life. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't decline an offer to attend Camp Jupiter, but I would choose CHB over it if I had a choice.**

**Make sure you review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	4. Two Forms A Team (With Some Help)

**A huge thank you goes out to everyone who reviewed last chapter. We passed the 100 review mark, which is awesome after only three chapters.**

**Last chapter I asked you guys whether you'd like to go to Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter and the results are in. Camp Half-Blood was chosen by an outstanding 19-1 margin over Camp Jupiter. CJ only has that 1 because two people said they'd like to go to both camps, so I gave each camp a half-point.**

**Chapter Four is dedicated to RoyalGreyFeather and the story is still dedicated to JazzApples.**

**Enjoy Chapter Four of The Ten.**

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan isn't heading to college in under a month.**

* * *

IV: TWO FORMS A TEAM (WITH SOME HELP)

"We need to get out of here," Thalia said as she hopped into Percy's BMW, throwing a small backpack into the backseat. She was wearing a white blouse and jeans, something Percy would never have thought he would see on the princess.

Percy looked over to his left at her before releasing the brake and starting back towards his hotel.

"Why?" He asked. Percy turned the wipers up to the next setting as the rain poured down and lightning flashed overhead. The streets were basically empty. Anyone in their right mind would be inside right now.

Thalia held up her left hand. Percy looked over quickly before returning his eyes to the road. He then had to do a double-take, because he wasn't sure what he saw.

"They let you take it?" He asked somewhat stunned.

Thalia rotated the bracelet around her left wrist nervously with her right hand. She was quiet for a couple of blocks before she answered.

"No. They didn't let me." Her voice was very soft, as if she was holding something back. Truthfully, Thalia didn't want Percy to know what really happened.

"Wait," Percy said, coming to a realization. "You stole it?"

"I had to," she replied quickly as if defending herself. "I didn't really have a choice."

"Oh gods. This is bad. Do they know?"

"I wouldn't have asked you to be quick if they didn't."

"You're right," Percy said as he stopped the car outside the hotel. "We need to leave."

"They don't know it was me," Thalia said to him as the two of them stepped out of the car. "At least, not yet. We have at least twenty-four hours. We need to find out where to go next and get out of the country."

Percy looked over at the princess before leading the way into the hotel. He was quiet for a while. As they entered the room, Thalia spoke up.

"Percy, you ok?" She asked. He gave her a look. "What?"

"I think I'm starting to like you princess."

Thalia rolled her eyes at Percy before jumping onto the bed and making herself comfortable. She pulled out her laptop and powered it up. Percy's mouth formed a smirk and he turned to grab his own laptop before joining the princess on the bed.

"So, any ideas?" Percy asked.

Thalia shook her head. "None right now. You said you got directed towards me?"

"Yeah. And that led me here."

"Ok, it looks like we're not getting any help here. I mean, no one has given you a clue, have they?" She looked to Percy for confirmation. He shook his head. "We should just split up and research and see what we come up with."

"Sounds like a good idea." Percy turned away from Thalia and he immediately brought up Google. After around fifteen seconds of blanking out, he sighed. This was going to be a long night.

Two hours later Thalia was immersed in the history of England when she looked over at Percy. He had both earphones in and he was on a webpage that didn't look anything like research.

"Percy, what are you doing?" She asked.

Percy stood as still as a rock, occasionally clicking the mouse, but otherwise not looking in her direction.

"Percy." Still no reaction. "Percy!"

The black-haired boy jumped and then slowly removed his earphones.

"Yeah?" He asked timidly. Thalia rolled her eyes and then pointed to his computer screen.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, it's Pandora," he replied. "Helps me concentrate."

"What's Pandora?"

Percy's eyes widened. "What? You've never heard of Pandora? Wow, you royals sure are spoiled."

"Just tell me what it is," she yapped at him.

"Ok, ok. Pandora is a music website," Percy said, pointing to the screen. "What you do is type in any artist, song, you name it, into the search bar and it will create a music station based around that artist. It's like radio, but all attuned to what you like and there are barely any commercials, only an ad here and there."

"Wait, _any _artist?"

"Yeah, for the most part. It will even give you the lyrics of the current song and a bio on the band."

"That's cool. I'll have to check it out." Thalia paused, returning to her own screen when she realized why she was yelling at Percy. "Wait, why weren't you doing any research?"

Percy looked over at Thalia and his face was filled with confusion for a second. Then his facial expression changed completely.

"No, no, I was just changing the song," he said quickly. "I've been doing research, see?" His screen changed to a Wikipedia page.

"Ok, if you say so." Thalia looked away, but then did a quick double-take. "Wait, why are you looking up Queen Victoria?"

"Just a little hunch," Percy replied. Thalia looked at him skeptically.

"Care to explain?"

"Sure." Percy tilted the screen towards her. "Ok, so I was researching about Queen Victoria and I found out that she was born in 1819, right?"

"Yeah, sure," Thalia responded distractedly, wanting him to continue. "That sounds about right."

"Ok," Percy went on. "So on a whim I decided to see what other world events were happening around that time." He looked over at the princess to make sure she was following. Thalia looked at him, urging him to go on. "I found out that several of the Latin American countries, a lot actually, had gotten their independence from their colonial powers during the span of 1810 to 1825. So then I checked the individual countries and I found something interesting. In 1819, the same year Victoria was born, Brazil started their rebellions against Portuguese rule."

"Yeah, and?"

Percy held up a hand, signifying that he wasn't finished.

"Three years later, in 1822, Brazil declared their independence from Portugal. Three years after that they were officially recognized as an independent country."

"Yeah, and? So what?"

Percy sighed. Thalia obviously wasn't catching on.

"Threes," he said. "Things are coming in threes, Thalia. Three years between the first rebellion and the declaration. Three years until they were recognized. It's been three centuries since Queen Victoria's lifetime."

"Again, so what? Why are threes so important?"

"Thalia, we're looking for our third person."

* * *

"You get the window seat."

Percy blinked a couple times, not sure he heard her right. She _didn't _want the window seat? That was a surprise.

"You sure?" He asked.

"Yeah. I'm not really fond of heights. I'd rather not see us thirty-thousand feet in the air."

Percy shrugged. "Ok, if you insist."

Percy hopped into the seat by the window and Thalia slid into the seat next to him.

"Oh my god, it's the princess!"

Thalia tensed and Percy looked to his left. A young boy of around ten or so was standing right next to their seats, his mom obviously behind him. Thalia stuttered, not knowing what to say. She hadn't expected anything like this to happen. Luckily Percy saved her.

"Oh, she wished she was the princess, don't you cuz?" He said. "Ever since you dyed your hair black I tried to tell you, but no, you wouldn't ever believe me." He turned towards the ten-year-old. "Sorry little guy, but she isn't the princess. The princess is probably still sleeping, thinking about her next archery tournament."

The little boy looked down in disappointment and his mother dragged him along towards the back of the flight.

Thalia looked over at Percy. "Thanks," she said quietly.

"I warned you, didn't I?" Percy returned a smile.

"So you're not actually the princess?"

Thalia looked to her left and saw a college-aged girl. She was sitting next to a guy who Thalia presumed was her boyfriend. Thalia quickly put on a smile, albeit a forced one.

"No," she lied. "I wish though."

"Oh darn," the girl said with a laugh. "It would have been nice to meet someone important."

"Remember, we're sitting in Economy," Percy put in. "If she was actually the princess, we'd probably be in first class."

The girl laughed again. "That's true."

Luckily the girl turned away and Thalia released a sigh of relief. She shared a look with Percy before looking back towards the front of the plane, where the flight attendants were demonstrating how to buckle and unbuckle the seatbelt.

As the plane made its way towards the runway, the pilot came on over the loudspeaker.

_Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Captain John Honeysworth and I will be your pilot for your flight today. Rio de Janeiro is a seven hour flight, so sit back, relax, and let the flight attendants take care of your every need. We will be arriving at around 8:00 local time. A huge thank you goes out from everyone here at British Airways and we hope you enjoy your flight._

Thalia and Percy shared one more look before settling down for a long nap. They had been up almost all night after all.

* * *

Thalia shook Percy awake. Percy stirred and eventually opened his eyes.

"What?" He asked.

"We're landing," Thalia told him. Percy turned to look out the window and sure enough the ground was closing up on them.

They landed with barely a bump and soon they were at the terminal. It took the two teens a while to get off the plane, but eventually they made it into the airport.

Thalia and Percy stopped as they made their way into the terminal. They looked at the signs, but they couldn't tell what they said.

"Do you speak Portuguese?" Thalia asked Percy.

"Not a chance," he replied. "You?"

Thalia shook her head.

"Great," Percy continued. "So we're stuck?"

"No, but we should try to find an information desk. They'll be sure to help us."

Percy kept his eye trained on Thalia as she looked both ways down the walkway.

"This way," she said, pointing opposite him to the left, but still looking to her right.

Thalia started to move without looking. Percy was about to follow when he noticed someone else doing the same thing Thalia was, except she was looking down at her phone and texting. In the split second Percy had to calculate, he knew they were on a crash course.

"Wait-" Percy started, but he was too late. Thalia crashed into the girl and her phone went sprawling, just like she had. Thalia also fell to the ground.

The girl threw out some rapid Portuguese, probably apologizing, and Thalia was doing the same thing, but in English. The two girls looked at each other and then, as if they had rehearsed it, stopped speaking at the same time.

Thalia reacted first, standing up and offering the girl her hand. Now that they weren't struggling trying to apologize, Percy finally got a good look at the girl.

He immediately realized that she was _very _attractive. She looked to be around eighteen or nineteen, only a year or two older than they were. Her brown hair was so dark it looked almost black and her stunning blue eyes made Percy immediately turn rigid when she turned her gaze on him. Her skin was tanned, but he knew a lot of girls around here were tan. He didn't really know why he was assuming, but she seemed like a local, although they were in the middle of a huge airport, so she could have been from anywhere.

She wore a tank top under a winter jacket along with some jeans and some Uggs. The tank top didn't seem to fit the picture, but somehow the girl managed to pull it off.

Percy found himself speechless. He noticed the girl was now standing up thanks to Thalia and she was looking at him. No, not at him, but rather at his feet. Percy followed her gaze and an iPhone gleamed at his feet. It was wrapped in a pink case.

Percy picked the phone up and walked over to the girl before handing it to her.

"Thank you," the girl said in English. Percy was surprised how well she spoke the language, even if she had a slight accent.

"You're welcome," Percy replied.

The girl turned to Thalia, again intent on apologizing.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I wasn't looking. Are you ok?"

Thalia let out a short laugh. "Yeah, I'm fine. I was actually about to ask you the same thing."

The girl responded with a smile.

"I'm not hurt, so that's good." Thalia let out another chuckle.

"Yeah." Then a look of realization dawned on her and she looked over at Percy. "Actually, could you help us? You seem like you know the area."

"What gave me away?" The girl asked with a laugh. "Was it the winter jacket and Uggs?"

"More like the rapid Portuguese," Percy chimed in.

The girl looked back over at Percy before responding.

"I have to admit, you two seem a little out of place. Where are you from?"

They almost screwed it up. Percy responded with, "We're American," just as Thalia said, "England."

"Er," Thalia continued. "I'm from England. Percy's American."

"We're cousins," Percy added, answering the girl's unasked question.

"Oh, that's cool," the girl replied. "I'm Carolina, by the way. Carolina Silva."

Percy and Thalia each introduced themselves, shaking the girl's hand in turn.

"So, you guys are lost, huh?" Carolina asked. "Rio's airport can be confusing at times. Follow me. I'll help you out of here." Percy and Thalia muttered their thanks before following the girl off down the walkway.

Carolina led the way into a Starbucks, grabbing something to go before heading down towards baggage claim.

"So, what are you two doing here in Rio?" She asked.

Percy and Thalia, who had been walking behind the local, looked at each other before Percy replied.

"We're exploring," he said cautiously.

Carolina looked back at him, but kept walking.

"Really? And what exactly are you exploring?"

Percy and Thalia shared another quick look and Thalia nodded.

"We're searching for something," Percy said. "A bracelet to be exact."

"Like the ones on your wrists?"

Thalia looked over at Percy surprised and realized he was doing the same thing. Were they really that obvious, or was this girl just observant?

"I saw it when you helped me up Thalia. Kind of cool if you ask me." She paused. "Why do you need it?"

"We're on a scavenger hunt," Thalia said tentatively.

"All over the world?" Carolina looked back for confirmation.

"Yeah, well sort of."

"And you know it's in Rio?"

"No, well not exactly." She paused. "We have a hunch it's here, but we're not positive. We kind of get clues when we find the previous ones, but we're on a time limit. We're supposed to find as many as we can before the time is up."

"Cool. And the winner gets some sort of prize, I'm assuming?"

"Yeah, well, we're not really sure what the prize is, but the winner does get something." Thalia's eyes glanced over at Percy as if sending a message and Percy knew what she was saying. She didn't really want to talk about this much more. She was starting to run out of lies.

Before Carolina could respond, Percy cut in.

"Hey, Carolina, would you mind giving us a tour of Rio when we're out of the airport?" Thalia was shooting daggers at him, as if that was one thing she _didn't_ want him to do, but Percy knew this was a chance they couldn't fail to take. It's not every day you would have the chance to get a tour from someone who really knew the area.

Carolina seemed a little surprised by the request, but she quickly composed herself.

"I'll have to check with my parents, see what I'm doing today. Wait, actually," she popped up as if remembering something. "Actually, we're going to a futbol game tomorrow. It's pretty early, but would you mind coming along to the game before we head out for a tour? I could give you my phone number."

Percy sent a little glare at Thalia to shut her up before responding. Thalia was about to decline the offer and tour and Percy wasn't going to let her do that.

"Yeah, sure. That would be fine with us. Who's playing?"

"Brazil is hosting Japan in a friendly. It's a warm-up game for the World Cup next summer."

"Sounds great." They had arrived at baggage claim and Percy saw the car rental behind the slew of people waiting for their bags to arrive. "Hey, thanks for leading us out of there, Carolina. You were a big help."

"No problem," she replied. "Are you guys leaving?"

"Yeah," Percy answered. "We should probably get to our hotel and get some rest. We were basically up all last night."

Thalia muttered, "That's an understatement," but Carolina didn't seem to hear her.

"Ok. We can meet up tomorrow. Here's my phone number." The three teenagers exchanged phone numbers. After they were done, Carolina continued, "Are you sure you can make it to your hotel alright?"

"Don't worry, we have GPS," Percy replied. "The roads shouldn't be that confusing."

"Ok. I'll see you guys tomorrow then."

Percy and Thalia said their good-byes before heading off towards the car rental.

The second they had opened a gap between them and the local, Thalia turned on him.

"Why would you ask for a tour from her?" She asked. "She was basically forcing me to lie out of my mind."

"Trust me Thalia," he responded calmly. "It will help us."

"It better," she replied. "Or else I'm going to have to kill you."

* * *

The next morning Percy and Thalia joined back up with Carolina for breakfast before tailing her the entire way to the stadium for the game. Percy wasn't a huge fan of soccer, but he knew that Brazil always had a good team and the World Cup was their biggest tournament, so success was critical.

They had been told to wear yellow or blue, as they were the colors of Brazil and as they walked in Percy noticed that they would have stood out if they had done otherwise. Everyone was wearing something representing the country and that wasn't an understatement.

They had pretty good seats. They were tenth row just left of the midfield stripe.

After two hours the game was over and people were starting to leave. Brazil had won 2-1 with a goal in the final minutes, so everyone was going home happy. Percy and Thalia had stayed behind as people were heading out. They were waiting for Carolina, who was talking with her parents. After a couple of minutes she walked over to the two of them.

"Ready to head out?" She asked.

"Yeah," Thalia replied. "Are you sure your parents won't mind?"

"They're fine. They are actually supporting me in giving you this tour. They say it will help me when I get out into the real world when I finally get a job."

"That makes sense. What are you planning on becoming?" Thalia asked.

"A translator."

"Wow, that's pretty cool. So you need to know a lot of languages then, huh?"

"Yeah," Carolina replied. "I already know Portuguese, English and Spanish and I'm currently working on French."

"Jeez," Percy replied. "That's four languages. I barely know one."

That got a short laugh out of the girls.

"Come on," Carolina continued, "let's keep moving. It's going to take a while to get out of the parking lot."

The three teenagers followed the crowd out of the stadium, but Percy was hungry, so they stopped for a hot dog before finally leaving.

Thalia and Carolina both rolled their eyes in harmony as Percy headed towards the concession stand.

When Percy was finally satisfied, ketchup and all, the trio finally walked out of the stadium and towards the parking lot.

They were about to cross the road when Percy stopped them suddenly.

"Wait," he said. "Let me throw away this trash."

As Percy turned back to head towards a trash can, Carolina turned towards Thalia.

"He's already done?" She asked.

"Boys," Thalia replied. "Always eating." Carolina let out a short laugh and they returned their gaze to Percy.

Percy put the last bite of hot dog in his mouth and dumped the wrapper in the trash can. He looked up and immediately saw a girl who looked quite out of place a couple steps from him. The girl turned and the two of them locked eyes.

The girl looked to be his age, maybe a couple months younger. Her skin was tanned, not quite as tanned as Carolina's, but still quite tan. He couldn't tell what color her eyes were from this distance, but he could tell that the girl had chocolate brown hair. She was very pretty, but like he said previously, she seemed out of place. She looked a little scared.

Percy walked up to her. The girl looked him up and down once and seemed to relax for a second.

"Hey," Percy said. "Are you ok? You seem a little lost."

The girl paused before replying. "I'm – I'm fine," she finally replied.

"Ok, I just thought I'd check. You're not from around here, are you?"

The English kind of gave it away. If she was a local, she probably would struggle with the language at least a little bit, like Carolina did, but she seemed to be fluent.

"No, I'm not." She paused for a second, as if debating whether to go on. She looked like she came to a decision. "My dad's making a movie here. I'm supposed to be watching him and learning how to act."

"You're an actress?" Percy asked.

The girl gave him a shy smile. "Kind of," she said. "My dad's a pretty popular actor, and I get the feeling he wants me to follow in his footsteps."

"That's cool. Do you need a ride? Like I said, you do seem out of place."

"No, I'm fine with the ride. I wasn't supposed to sneak out, but I had to get away, so I decided to come to the game. My dad probably didn't notice my absence anyways."

Percy's eyes narrowed at that. "Really? You mean your dad wouldn't notice at all?"

"Probably not." Percy sensed a little bit of annoyance in the girl's words, but he let it go.

Percy was about to say his good-byes when the girl cut him off.

"Is that your bracelet?" She asked suddenly.

Percy was thrown off by the question. He looked down at his left wrist, bringing the bracelet up into the light.

"Yeah," he replied, "it is."

"It's so pretty," the girl replied. "You wouldn't happen to have any extras, would you?"

The girl looked up at him, her eyes filled with hope. Percy still wasn't able to tell what color they were, they kept changing.

Percy finally seemed to come to a realization. The wind seemed to stop as he stared into this girl's eyes.

"You don't have one of your own?" He asked hesitantly.

The girl pouted. "No. I really wish I did though."

Percy's senses were going into overdrive.

"What's your name?" He asked her.

The girl seemed to be caught off guard. Percy thought her barriers seemed to go right back up.

"Why?" She asked, her eyes narrowing.

"Sorry," Percy apologized. "I was getting ahead of myself. I think I might be able to find you a bracelet, but I'd have to get in contact with you. We had never introduced ourselves, so I thought we'd do that. Sorry if it caught you off guard."

"Oh, ok. That makes sense. I'm Piper. Piper-" She cut herself off. "I'm Piper." She held out her hand.

"Percy," he replied, shaking the girl's hand.

"Do you really think you could find me a bracelet?" Piper's voice was hopeful.

"I might need your help to find it, but yeah, we could find you one."

"Oh, thank you so much. It's so pretty and – sorry. I was getting a little too anxious."

"No problem," Percy replied. "Can I get your phone number? I get the feeling we're going to have to be in contact."

"Yeah, sure," Piper replied. "Let me see your phone. I'll put it in for you."

Percy handed Piper his iPhone and she typed in her number. She handed the phone back when she was done.

Percy looked at the number, a ten-digit number starting with a 323 area code.

"You're American?" Percy asked.

"Yeah," Piper replied confused. "Aren't you?"

"Yeah. I'm from New York."

"New York, the city?" Percy nodded. "Oh, cool. I'm from LA."

"Then why-"

Piper cut him off. "Am I in Rio? My dad's movie, remember?"

"Oh, yeah, of course." Percy paused. "Sorry, my bad."

Piper laughed. "It's ok. Why are you in Rio then?"

Percy was about to reply when he heard Thalia's voice from behind him.

"Percy, come on!"

Percy turned to look at Thalia before turning back to Piper.

"Sorry, I need to go. I'll call you tonight and we can talk, ok?"

"Ok, sounds great. See you later, Percy."

With that, Percy turned and walked away from Piper. She was one mysterious girl, he thought. Then again, was he any better? Percy shook the thought away as he regrouped with Thalia and Carolina.

Thalia glanced at him questioningly, but he ignored her for the time being.

"Did you know her?" Carolina asked.

Percy looked back over his shoulder, but Piper was already gone.

"Yeah," he lied. "One of my friends from back in the US. She seemed a little lost, so I went over and talked with her."

Thalia was still shooting him a questioning look, but she kept her mouth shut. She obviously knew Percy was lying, but Carolina didn't.

"Oh, that's cool," Carolina replied. "Ready for the tour?"

Percy looked back over his shoulder once more before turning to the local girl.

"Yeah," he said. "Let's go."

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, what did you think? Piper is now involved and she'll make another appearance next chapter.**

**Chapter Five will be uploaded on Wednesday of next week, so mark your calendars.**

**In other news, a new chapter of The Prince, The Girl and The World will hit the site on Monday and a new chapter of Scars and Recognition will be up on Tuesday, so check for those.**

**Onto the Question of the Chapter: Would you rather be a Greek or Roman demigod?**

**This is different than the question last chapter, so please take that into account. The camps aside, what type of demigod would you like to be? If this question looks familiar, it is. I asked it in Chapter 7 of The Princess and the Peasant. But I'm asking it again for a couple of reasons. If you haven't caught on yet, I'm sort of profiling a list of different random things based on the series. I will publish the results in Chapter 10. You'll see what I mean as we go farther on.**

**Ok, now onto my answer, now that that is out of the way. I'd rather be a Roman demigod. Despite my laziness, I've always wanted to be extremely fit as well as strong, etc. The only thing I wouldn't really like is the swordfighting, as I'd rather fight alone like the Greeks, rather than in a team like the legion. I like the gods more in their Roman aspects as well, so that'd be another plus. That's about it. I promise the next question is a little easier and more fun to answer.**

**Now, make sure to review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	5. A Trio Is Formed

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter. As always, it's appreciated.**

**Last chapter I asked you guys if you'd rather be a Greek or Roman demigod and I'm proud to say that the results are in. Most of you preferred to be a Greek demigod (16 to 6), so you stuck with the Greek side of things. I get a feeling that will change this chapter.**

**We move onto Chapter 5, which is dedicated to GetLostInTheMusic. The story, of course, is still dedicated to JazzApples.**

**Enjoy Chapter Five of The Ten.**

**Disclaimer: If Rick Riordan wrote on Fanfiction, he probably would have 1000 reviews after one chapter. I barely have that after writing six stories.**

* * *

V: A TRIO IS FORMED

"Hey Piper, it's Percy."

"Oh, hey Percy. What's up?"

"Nothing much," he replied. "I promised I'd call you right?"

Percy heard a laugh come from the other end of the line. "Yeah, I guess you did. Any update on the bracelet?"

Subconsciously, Percy glanced at Thalia and then the bracelet on his left wrist before replying. Truthfully, he had been pacing around the hotel room trying to think of what to say and then Piper's ringtone had gone on for what seemed like forever before she finally picked up.

"Sort of," he told her. "I think you probably should come and talk in person, though. It would probably be easier on both you and me."

The line was quiet for a second or two. Percy could just imagine the girl on the other end thinking it through.

"Are you sure?" She said tentatively.

"Yeah," Percy replied almost immediately. "Not tonight, but maybe sometime tomorrow we can meet up someplace."

"Not anywhere public," the answer came quickly from the other line.

Percy stumbled over an answer. "Ok, how about you come over to our hotel then? We can talk in our room."

Percy heard the other line go silent once more. He had barely talked to the girl, but he could picture her face dropping into a brooding expression, her lips forming a straight line, her eyes focusing on something randomly, like she had when he'd talked to her outside of the stadium.

Piper seemed to come to a decision on the other line. Percy heard her take a deep breath.

"Sure," was the response. "Where should I meet you?"

Percy gave her the name of the hotel he and Thalia were staying at.

"How about noon tomorrow?" He offered.

Piper agreed and the two of them hung up, promising to get back in contact the next day.

"You sure she's the next one?" Thalia asked from across the room once Percy had ended the call.

Percy turned towards the princess, amazed at how much she had changed in just a couple days. Her black hair was constantly pulled up into a ponytail and she was always wearing jeans. She had black combat boots sitting in the corner of the room and she had pretty much stopped wearing jewelry other than her bracelet.

"Yeah," he responded confidently. "I'm positive."

"Alright," Thalia replied. "I trust your judgment." Percy looked over at her, a little surprised she had said something like that, but he let it go. They needed to trust each other if they were going to get anywhere on this journey. "So, she's coming over at noon, you said?"

"Yeah. I'll meet her down in the lobby and bring her up here to our room."

"Okay. I'm gonna turn in for the night. I get the feeling we'll be up late tomorrow."

"I know what you mean," Percy said. "Go ahead. I'm going to hop in the shower quickly."

Thalia merely nodded before unlatching her bracelet and placing it on the bedside table. Percy could tell she was waiting for him to step into the bathroom before undressing.

Percy collected his nightclothes and stepped into the bathroom, closing the door behind him, ready for a nice warm shower to relax him. He, like Thalia, was sure that they had a big day ahead of them.

* * *

The next morning Percy got a call on his cell phone and immediately recognized the number as Piper's. He turned towards Thalia.

"It's Piper," he told her. "I think she's down in the lobby. I'll go down and get her."

Thalia just nodded before looking back down at her iPhone.

"Hey, Piper," Percy said while he slipped on his shoes. "What's up?"

With that, Percy walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. Thalia was left all alone.

With Percy's departure, Thalia looked up after him at the closing door. He really was an interesting case, she thought. He had told her that he was a mere schoolboy, but yet he seemed like something much more to her. She couldn't help but think that if this task had come to her first she probably wouldn't have done it. She would have left it behind until it was too late. Then again, she had a life to live. It was only Percy's convincing that had made her leave. She probably wouldn't have listened to anyone else.

Thalia _did_ respect Percy, a lot in fact. Flying the entire way across the Atlantic Ocean deserved at least some respect and by going about what seems like an impossible task he proved himself to her.

But one thing kept nagging at her. Percy had told her that this guy Chiron had told him the story of The Ten to him in order to get him to go on the trip, but she couldn't shake the bad feeling that the first time all of The Ten had died. Sure, they had obviously saved the entire world, but she could tell, even through Percy, that Chiron was holding something back. Something that would change their minds about going on this crazy mission.

She pushed the thought aside as Percy and the new girl, Piper, came back into the room. Thalia had been thinking about Piper several times since their meeting yesterday morning. She hadn't talked to her, but she could tell that Piper was trying not to draw attention to herself. A prime example of that was her hair. It was luscious chocolate brown, but the ends were choppy, as if someone had cut them with safety scissors. It was like she was trying to balance out her perfections with faults. Thalia could tell, if you overlooked the little things like that, that this girl was _seriously _beautiful. She just didn't want to show it for some reason. She pushed the thought aside. She wasn't the person to go around judging people. Percy had made her rethink doing things like that once she had met him.

She locked eyes with the young actress as Percy introduced the two of them. Thalia held out her hand, politely waiting for a handshake.

Piper hesitated for a second, but then shook her hand.

"So, you're an actress?" Thalia asked, trying to break the ice, however the girl just seemed to freeze up even more.

"Y-yeah," she stuttered. "Well, sort of."

"Sort of?"

Piper wouldn't hold her gaze. "Yeah. I'm supposed to follow in my dad's footsteps, but I'm not sure if that's what I really want to do."

"Your dad's an actor too?" Piper nodded, still not holding her gaze. "What's his name? I might have heard of him."

That was the wrong question to ask. The girl seemed to tighten up and Thalia could tell she was trying to come up with a lie.

"My dad, uh, is-" Thalia cut her off.

"You know, Piper, you can tell us his real name. We're not going to criticize you for it."

Her head popped up and then quickly went back down in shame, as if she was embarrassed by the thought that she had been caught.

Thalia caught Percy's eye and the two of them came to a decision without talking. Percy turned towards Piper.

"Piper, just tell us his name. People are much more than their names, you know?"

"Not with me," she replied almost immediately. "People just use me to get money from my dad. They don't care about what happens to me whenever it happens. And for the most part, neither does my dad."

"So he _is _famous." Percy came to the conclusion at the same time Thalia did.

"What? How did you…" She trailed off in confusion.

"Piper, we won't press you," Thalia said. "Just know that not everyone is who they seem. Tell me, who do you think I am?"

Piper looked up and for once held her gaze. After around five seconds or so, she looked back down at her feet.

"Why are you asking me that?"

"I'm proving a point," Thalia replied almost immediately. "Just tell me this once and I'll let it go."

Thalia heard Piper sigh in exasperation. "Fine," she said, looking back up at her. "If I had to say, I'd say you were Percy's sister, or maybe a cousin. You two probably wouldn't be travelling together unless you were dating and I know that's not the case." Thalia's eyebrow raised at this. "And you seem like an American, although some feeling I keep getting tells me that I'm wrong."

"That's an understatement," Thalia said, standing up from the bed and walking over to the actress, extending her hand for a handshake once more. "Piper, I'm Thalia Grace, royal princess of the United Kingdom, great-granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth the second."

Piper didn't shake her hand in response. She just stared in shock. "But-but Percy's American!"

"Yeah," Thalia replied, bringing her hand back down to her side. "And I'm English. What's your point?"

"But, you, him." Piper couldn't form a complete sentence as she looked back and forth between Percy and Thalia.

"Not everyone is what they seem, Piper," Percy said, taking a step forward.

The young actress finally seemed to gather herself. "Then are you a royal too?"

Percy shook his head. "Nope. I'm just a normal schoolboy."

"But then-"

"How did the two of us meet up?" Percy finished. "Take a seat." He waved his hand at the nearest chair. "It's time for a story."

* * *

Percy did a great job of explaining, Thalia thought. He always seemed to relax when he started talking about The Ten. He knew more about them than she did, so she gladly let him explain. Piper was quiet throughout the entire time Percy talked, occasionally looking up at his eyes before looking back down at the floor. Once Percy was finished, Piper was quiet for a long time, around a minute, but she didn't give off the feeling of confusion, but more like she was deep in thought. Eventually she spoke.

"So what exactly are you saying?" She asked.

"Piper," Thalia started, gathering her attention, "it doesn't matter who you are, what family you come from, or even what you plan on becoming when you're older. We need your help. Just as Percy told me, I'm now telling you. You're important in this. That much is certain. You can stay here if you want, live the same life you have now, or you could come with us, help us on this trip, this quest we have, and leave everything you know behind."

"Do I really have a choice?" Piper asked meekly, her voice filled with despair.

"Yes," Percy replied almost immediately. Piper looked up at him. "We're not forcing you to go on this crazy quest with us, Piper. It's one-hundred percent your decision. If you don't want to come, that's understandable. The two of us can leave and you can forget about us. We're just giving you the option. Like I said, the decision is up to you."

Piper looked back down, again deep in thought. After a few seconds, she looked back up, first at Thalia before locking eyes confidently with Percy.

"Yes," she said simply. Percy and Thalia both looked at each other, surprised by this sudden confidence. Thalia looked back at Piper, ready to speak when she cut her off. "I'm going to need one of you to come with me. I have an idea about my bracelet. I want to look at the dressing room for my dad's movie."

"Why only one of us?" Percy questioned.

"My dad would get suspicious," she replied with a shake of her head. "And I'd prefer if it was you, Thalia. My dad would be less likely to question a girl than a guy. Sorry, Percy."

"No, it's fine," he said quickly. "I'll stay back and start researching our next destination. That way we can work on a couple things at once. You guys get going."

"Ok." Piper turned towards Thalia. "Are you ready to go?"

"Let me grab my jacket and then we can head out. Percy, we'll call you if we have any trouble. I'm assuming you have a car?" The last question was directed at Piper.

"Yeah, well sort of. More like a chauffeur, but still."

"Okay, it might actually be better if Percy picks us up after we're done. You know, less explaining to do if we have to get out quick."

"Sounds good. I'll text you the address when we get there, ok Percy?"

"That's fine," he replied, pulling out his laptop. "You two get going. We're on a time restraint, remember?"

With that, the two girls headed out the door, leaving Percy behind to do the one thing he absolutely loved to do: research.

* * *

Piper led Thalia down to the lobby and then out the doors to where a limo was waiting.

"You have a limo?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah," Piper replied quickly. "Now get in."

Thalia hopped into the back of the limo and was quickly followed by Piper. The driver closed the door behind them and walked around to the driver's seat.

"Where to, Miss McLean?" The driver asked and Thalia swore she saw the girl wince.

"Just back to the studio please. Thanks."

McLean, Thalia thought. Where had she heard that name before? She looked over at Piper, who wasn't matching her gaze. That's when it hit her.

"You're dad's Tristan McLean," she said simply.

Piper's head shot up. "What? How-"

"The last name helped," Thalia admitted. "But it was looking at you that gave it away. You both have the same expression."

"Great," Piper said despairingly. "I was trying to get through this without telling you."

"Hey, don't worry. I told you who I was, didn't I?"

Piper cracked a smile, albeit a small one. "Yeah, I guess so."

The limo drove through the crowded streets of Rio. Thalia saw that there were many people walking outside, riding bicycles, or just standing around waiting for the local bus.

They left the central city and headed west towards the outskirts. The sun was beginning its descent directly over them. Thalia figured they had four or five hours until sundown.

Within two minutes they arrived at their destination. The set up was different, as if the movie took place in ancient times. Clay houses were built around in random areas and ladders were propped up along each wall to give access to the houses' roofs. People were all standing around, relaxing, whether they were on top of the buildings, in the doorways or just milling around on the streets. Everyone was wearing a cowboy hat and most of the men had rifles like those used in the Civil War. Thalia noticed one guy in normal clothes standing in the center, talking to a guy whom she recognized as Tristan McLean. She figured he was the director. Cameras were positioned around the outside of the set and boom guys (the guys with the mics) were standing next to the cameras, just out of view. The microphones were sitting on the ground for now.

Thalia was about to turn towards Piper to comment when she noticed that Piper was on the phone, presumably with Percy. She hung up within a couple seconds and turned towards Thalia.

"Hey, let's hit up the dressing rooms while they're filming. We'll be bothered less there."

"What are they filming?" Thalia asked, generally intrigued.

"It's an old Western about one of the revolutions before the Civil War," Piper told her. "My dad's the leader." She pointed in his direction and Thalia turned and looked. "They're either filming the final battle scene or the scene where he wins over the town and convinces them to fight."

"Oh, that's cool."

"Yeah, come on," Piper urged. "While we have the time."

Thalia reluctantly turned from the set and followed Piper around back towards the trailers that held the costumes.

"Let's stay together," Piper said. "Separating probably isn't the best idea."

Thalia agreed and the two of them stepped into the first trailer. Before she followed, Thalia looked down the line at the other trailers and counted four more. She sighed and followed Piper in and nearly bumped into her because she had stopped. Thalia looked up and saw someone else, presumably one of the workers under the director's staff standing before the two of them.

"And just what are you doing in here, miss?" The lady asked Piper.

Now, Thalia had pegged Piper as a quick thinker, but she could tell that Piper was frozen under the gaze of this lady.

"So, this is the dressing rooms, huh?" Thalia said out loud, being sure to catch both Piper's and the worker's attention. "This is really cool, Piper. Thanks so much for showing me around. This makes me want to become even more of a director when I'm older."

Piper gathered herself quickly and took the opening.

"No problem, Thalia. I'm glad I could help. After all, I couldn't let you go without giving you a tour, you know, with you wanting to be a director when you grow older."

Thalia solidified it when she acted like she had noticed the worker for the first time.

"Oh, and this is one of the make-up artists?"

"Actually I'm work with the costumes," the lady replied politely. "Excuse me, miss, but you said something about wanting to be a director?"

"Well," Thalia looked down nervously, "I'm actually not sure, but it's one of my ideas. That or an actress, but I'm not very good at acting. I really like movies and I've always been interested to see how they're made, so when I heard Piper was here, I _had_ to convince my parents to let me go for one day to check out the set. We're here on vacation."

"Ok, well I hope you're enjoying your tour. Just please don't touch anything."

"Don't worry, I won't." Thalia put on a smile that was so clearly fake, even Piper had to question whether Thalia was laying it on too thick. But the lady let them go and walked off.

Once the lady had gone out of hearing distance, Piper whispered, "Gods, you _don't _want to be an actress? That was damn near perfect acting. Thanks by the way."

"No problem," Thalia replied. "Let's keep moving."

"Yeah," Piper agreed. "Come on, I know where I'm going."

Thalia followed Piper through rows of clothes, occasionally turning corners and trying to avoid the other workers.

"In here," Piper told her and the two of them ducked into a side room. "This is the jewelry room, so if anything, it'll be in here."

"Ok," Thalia replied. "You check that side and I'll start with this side. We'll meet in the middle."

"Ok, sounds good."

Thalia headed off to the left and opened the top drawer, but it was only filled with rings, so she moved onto the next drawer down. There were about seven per dresser and Thalia could go through them in around a minute. She was on the fourth dresser when she hit the jackpot.

It was in the third drawer from the top. Thalia had noticed it at the last second, thank the gods, the silver sticking out from the back illuminating against the light. She saw the dove etched into the silver and pulled it from the drawer.

"Got it!" Thalia said and turned towards Piper.

However, instead of finding the young McLean, she was faced with one of the workers, a large woman of around forty.

"You got it!" Piper said, turning around. "Where-" She cut off abruptly when she saw the worker.

"And just what do you two think you're doing?" The lady asked.

Thalia reacted extremely quickly, kicking out her right leg and making contact with the lady's left knee. She went down in a heap.

"Go!" Thalia yelled at Piper and the two of them sprinted out of the room. Thalia followed Piper through the confusing corridors, grasping the bracelet as tightly as she could. She couldn't afford to drop it. They busted out of the door, avoiding the few actors and actresses that were walking towards the trailer.

"Call Percy!" Piper implored.

"Already on it," Thalia replied. "Here, take this." She handed Piper her bracelet as the two of them ran away from the set at full speed.

"Hey-lo," Percy picked up casually. "What's-"

"No time," Thalia cut him off as the two of them stopped at the edge of the road. "Where are you?"

"I'm, uh, three minutes out," he replied with the same casual tone, probably checking the GPS in the car. "What's up?"

Thalia turned back the way they came and saw the lady exiting the trailer around five hundred yards away. She turned towards the two of them and started coming their way, walking with a little hobble. She was on a cell phone, surely calling the cops. Luckily for them, it wasn't the same lady they had met at the entrance, so she didn't know their names. Well, she might know Piper, but Thalia hoped that she hadn't gotten a good look at her.

"Well," Thalia replied casually as Piper looked on. "We're probably about to be arrested and thrown in jail for stealing from a major motion picture, but that's fine. Take your time."

"What?" Thalia heard Percy yell. "I'll be there in under a minute." She heard the connection break and ended the phone call.

"He's coming," she said nervously, turning towards Piper.

"He better," she replied. "I can already hear sirens."

Sure enough, Piper wasn't lying. They could hear sirens in the distance. Please, Thalia prayed. Get here soon, Percy.

Her prayer was quickly answered, as Percy pulled up in their black Ford Focus.

Thalia and Piper quickly hopped in, Thalia in the front, Piper in the back.

"Of all the cars you could have picked at the airport," Thalia chided, "you had to pick a Ford Focus."

"Well, sooorry," Percy replied, dragging out the word. "I didn't know we needed a runaway car."

"Just go!" Piper yelled from the back. Percy needed no further encouragement. He shot away from the set. "Make a right!" Percy followed her orders. "Another right! Quick left! Ok, slow down. I think we're far enough away. I don't think we need a speeding ticket."

Percy listened to her. "Any way we can get back to the hotel?" He asked.

"We'll have to take the long way," Piper told him, going from memory on where their hotel was.

"That's fine," he replied. "Just get us back."

Percy followed Piper's directions and eventually the three of them made it back to the hotel, but not before they stopped at Piper's hotel to pick up her stuff. Percy parked a couple blocks away and the three of them walked, just in case the police put out a bolo on the car. They didn't want them knowing that they were staying in the hotel.

The three of them were tense up until the moment Percy got the hotel room door open. The three of them collapsed in exhaustion, but Thalia quickly spoke.

"Come on," she said. "Let's get researching. We should get out of here as quickly as possible."

Percy and Piper agreed and Percy powered up his laptop once more, telling the girls that he hadn't found anything when they had left. Piper didn't have a laptop, so she just teamed up with Thalia.

Nine hours later they still hadn't come up with _anything._ Percy looked over at the clock, which read 7:36. Percy sighed out of exhaustion. That wasn't 7:36 PM, but rather 7:36 AM. The three of them had pulled an all-nighter.

After another hour of worthless researching, Percy finally came up with the idea of calling Carolina. She would know more about the history of Brazil than they could find out through research.

Percy called her up and they agreed to meet at a local Starbucks, which was within walking distance of their hotel. Percy told Piper to stay behind and immediately she protested.

"But I'm a part of this trio now, aren't I?"

"Yes," Percy replied, trying to calm her down. "But there are other reasons why I want you to stay behind. One, you weren't there when Thalia and I first met Carolina, so it would be weird if you suddenly showed up. Secondly, if we find out the next destination, we could text you and you could order us tickets for the next flight, so we can get out of here as soon as possible."

Piper sighed. "Fine. I guess that makes sense."

"Ok, good. I'll leave you my credit card." Percy handed her the golden card. "I'll text you if we hear anything." Piper waved them away and he joined up with Thalia as the two of them left the room.

Ten minutes later they arrived at the Starbucks. Carolina was already there.

"Hey," she said as she saw them arrive. "How are you two doing?"

"Pretty good," Percy replied, sitting down at the table. Thalia did the same.

"So, I figure you guys need my help, right?"

"Yeah. We found the next bracelet, but we have no hints on the next destination. We figured you'd know the history of Brazil better than the Internet, so we called you up."

"Glad to feel important for once, haha."

Percy and Thalia both let out a short laugh. "Yeah, don't we all?" Thalia said.

"So, what do you want me to tell you?" Carolina asked.

"Just go through the history, from beginning to end," Percy told her. "We'll know if we hear anything important."

"Ok, well, let's see," she started. "South America was first settled back like fifteen thousand years ago, or some crazy number like that when the ice bridge formed from Russia to Alaska. I'm sure you've heard of that, right?"

"Yeah, somewhere," Percy replied, urging her to go on.

"Ok, so all of the ancient civilizations settled over here and they went undiscovered until 1492 when Christopher Columbus 'discovered' the Americas for the first time. Everyone's heard that story. With that came the age of the European conquests, as they started to take down all of the ancient civilizations. It was mostly the Spanish, but the Portuguese conquered one little part of the coastline, and that eventually grew into the country we now know as Brazil. Anything so far?"

Percy shook his head and looked over at Thalia to find her doing the same thing.

"Ok," Carolina continued. "So once the Spanish and Portuguese had solidified their hold on the continent, they quickly found out that they had a lot of various minerals and other different things that they had never seen in Europe, so they wanted to export these back home to get their monarch's attention, telling them that it was worth keeping these colonies. Once these exports took off, the monarchs quickly realized that they needed slaves to keep up with the demand of the Europeans. Coincidentally, the African Slave Trade was happening at the same time, so the monarchs took advantage of that, shipping the slaves over to their new colonies in order to help the production. One of my ancestors had actually come over as a slave from South Africa in the late 1500s." She paused for a drink, but she quickly was about to pick her story up again when Percy stood.

"That's it!" He said, immediately pulling out his phone, sending a text to Piper, one that simply said, _South Africa_.

"Are you sure?" Thalia asked.

"Positive. Thanks so much, Carolina. You were a huge help."

"Oh, ok," she said surprised. "You're welcome. Are you guys going to head out?"

"Yeah," Thalia replied, standing up from her seat. "We're on a time constraint, so we should keep moving. You really were a huge help. I'm glad I bumped into you at the airport." Thalia held out her hand for one last handshake.

Carolina laughed. "Yeah, I am too. If you guys ever come back to Brazil, let me know. I'll be happy to help you again." She shook Thalia's outstretched arm and then turned towards Percy, offering her hand.

"Don't worry, we will," Percy replied, shaking her hand. "Thanks again."

"Okay, see you guys later then."

Percy and Thalia said their good-byes before turning back towards their hotel. They walked back with a little more pep in their step and got back to their room in half the time.

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, what did you guys think? Piper has joined up and they are now a trio. They have the next destination. I'll let you guys guess who they'll meet there.**

**Now, I've got some pretty big news, guys. Since I have less than a month to college, I have decided to focus on my two other stories, so this one will go on a little hiatus until the beginning of August. Let's go with chapter six being uploaded on August 5th for now. That might be earlier, but like I said, I'm pushing this story to the side for a little to focus on my other stories. I'm sorry in advance, but I hope you guys will understand. I'll still upload fast, but it just won't be for this story.**

**In other news, a new chapter of The Prince, The Girl and The World will be uploaded tomorrow. Next chapter for Scars and Recognition will be up on Monday, so look for those.**

**Onto the Question of the Chapter: Would you have rather attacked Mt. Othrys with the Romans or defended Mt. Olympus with the Greeks?**

**This is a piece of cake for me. Attack. Why? No one wants to defend, and attacking gives you more options.**

**Now, make sure to review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	6. A Spooky Forest Shows The Way

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter. We are closing in on 200 reviews after only five chapters and that is absolutely amazing.**

**Last chapter I asked you guys whether you wanted to attack with the Romans or defend with the Greeks and you guys held true to your Greek roots. By a margin of 18.5 to 6.5 (one person said they would attack with the Greeks) you guys chose to rather defend with the Greeks. I get the feeling you all want to say the opposite thing I do. I don't know. I do know that we have an interesting question this chapter. I'll let you guys read first though.**

**Onto the chapter. Chapter 6 is a short chapter, but still a chapter nevertheless. It is dedicated to Tajee165 and the story is still dedicated to JazzApples.**

**Enjoy Chapter Six of The Ten.**

**Disclaimer: Two days until SoM movie!**

* * *

VI: A SPOOKY FOREST SHOWS THE WAY

When Percy and Thalia got back to the hotel, the two of them quickly joined Piper in packing their bags. Within three hours they were heading through security at the Rio airport. After being held up a little bit for a random check, the three of them headed to their gate and then quickly onto the plane. Luckily for them, it was a Southern Hemisphere to Southern Hemisphere flight, so they would already be somewhat adjusted to the weather.

They were flying overnight, so they would arrive in South Africa in the morning local time, which unfortunately meant another night of sleep lost. Sure, they would try to sleep on the plane, but that was no promise that the trio would actually get any sleep. In truth they didn't get much. For Percy, not getting much meant none at all, which meant he would have been up for almost three days straight. The three of them had agreed right away when they landed that they would take this day to rest before heading out the next day.

The three of them landed in Johannesburg, which was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, city in South Africa. It wasn't one of the three capitals, but don't count Johannesburg out. It was as noisy a city as ever. They could see the city had plenty of nightlife. Percy could tell it wasn't as much as back home in New York, but you couldn't live up to New York's level. The Big Apple was called "The City That Never Sleeps" for a reason.

The trio headed down to the car rental, passing the crowded baggage claim once more. Truthfully Chiron had been a lifesaver when it came to packing for the trip. After renting a car the three of them headed out to the garage. Piper, who had gotten the most sleep on the plane, volunteered to drive the short distance to their hotel. Percy and Thalia gratefully agreed and the two of them crashed in the back seat, immediately falling asleep due to exhaustion. Piper focused on the task at hand and made sure they got to their destination unharmed.

Piper tried to focus on how beautiful the hotel looked, but she was too tired. She woke her two companions from the back seat and the three of them checked in quickly before making their way to the room assigned to them.

Piper felt a little awkward having Percy in the same room as she was, but Thalia told her to let it go. The two girls agreed they didn't want Percy being alone, but still it was awkward. At least he was good looking, Piper thought. She shook the thought aside as Percy and Thalia crashed on the beds. Piper wanted a quick shower before turning in herself and she did that now, making her way into the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

* * *

The next morning the three of them awoke early, feeling extremely refreshed. They headed down for breakfast at the hotel's restaurant before grabbing their backpacks and heading out to the car.

Percy drove into the city and parked in one of Johannesburg's parking garages. After Percy successfully locked the car and placed the keys in his pocket, the three of them headed down to street level. They debated for a little bit, but eventually decided to head downtown first before exploring the outskirts.

Heading downtown didn't do them much good, although they did see some quite impressive architecture. Most of the buildings seemed to be relatively new. Piper pointed out that she had read somewhere that they tore down the older buildings and erected new ones in their place, so that made some sense.

They saw some buildings worth exploring, but they were cut off from the public, so they decided against it. The three of them decided to start heading north towards the outskirts, but once they walked past a pizzeria that couldn't be passed up they quickly found themselves inside enjoying a very good slice of pizza.

"Ok, now what?" Thalia asked between bites. "We tried downtown and that didn't work out so well. What do we do now?"

"Not sure," Percy admitted. "We could try the outskirts like we first planned, but I get the feeling they won't do us much good either."

"Are you guys tourists?"

The three of them jumped. Their waitress had come up on them with uncanny quietness.

"Sorry," she continued. "I overheard you guys talking about downtown and the outskirts of the city and I eavesdropped. Sorry if I scared you."

"It's ok," Thalia told the waitress. "Yeah, we're tourists. Any suggestions of where to go?"

"Well, that depends. Are we talking just Johannesburg, or South Africa in general?"

Percy caught Thalia's eye quickly. They came to a quick decision.

"South Africa in general would be great," he said.

"Ok," the waitress responded in a little too peppy of a tone. "Well, you _definitely _want to check out the three capitals. Pretoria's probably the closest one to here. It's just a little to the north."

Percy was about to ask if there was anything else when the girl cut him off.

"Oh, and you _have_ to stop at this one diner on your way. They have the _best _food in South Africa, I'm telling you."

While their waitress hastily wrote down the name of the diner, the three of them looked at each other. Thalia and Piper both looked like they wanted to take off, but Percy convinced them to hold on for a minute or two. The waitress was freaking him out a little bit, but information was invaluable. He turned away from his two companions as the waitress finished writing.

"We'll be sure to check it out," he said. "Anything else we should check out?"

She handed him the napkin with the diner on it.

"Yeah, definitely," she said. "Be sure to check out the coastline. And make sure you do it when you're not in a big city. It may look nice in a city like Cape Town, but it's a lot better out in the open. Also be sure to stop by one of the borders with Lesotho. You know, South Africa completely surrounds it, so it makes for an interesting border. You're always sure to see some sort of performer there or something. It's always pretty cool though."

"Alright, thanks for the info," Percy told her. "It's really helpful."

"No problem," the waitress replied. "Are you ready to pay now?"

"Yeah, thanks." Percy handed her his gold credit card and she walked away towards the back.

"So, what do you think, Percy?" Thalia asked.

"I don't know. She didn't really say much, but it's probably a good idea to check out the big cities. I'd say let's head up to Pretoria and then come back down to the border before heading out to the other two capitals. You have any objection to that?"

Thalia shook her head and was about to speak when the waitress returned with Percy's credit card. He signed the receipt and the three of them thanked the girl before heading back out onto the street.

"That sounds like a good enough idea to me," Thalia said. "Let's head back to the hotel and check out now. I for one would like to check out that diner she talked about."

"We might as well," Piper put in. "If it's on the way it won't do us any harm."

They seemed in agreement, so the three of them made their way back to the parking garage (only getting lost twice at dead ends) and eventually back to the hotel.

They quickly packed up their backpacks and the two girls made their way back out to the car as Percy checked out. Soon they were back on the road, heading north out of the city. After around an hour or so of shuffling through traffic they made it out of Johannesburg. A half-hour of open road driving later they were sitting in the parking lot of the diner. The GPS said they were around twenty minutes or so outside of Pretoria, which was good. If they stayed late eating, at least it wouldn't take long to get to the city.

Percy looked at the clock. _3:28 PM_. Too early for dinner.

"Ok, now what?" He asked.

"Let's explore a little," Piper said. "We know where the diner is now, so let's head out for an hour or so and see what interesting things we can find."

"I think your definition of interesting is different than mine," Thalia critiqued, "but exploring is a good idea."

Percy exited the parking lot of the diner and headed farther north. After ten minutes, Thalia motioned for him to pull off. Percy could see why.

The little alcove just off the road was beautiful. A stream flowed parallel to the road and a small waterfall about eight or ten feet tall came just after a bend in the stream. It cascaded down to a bunch of smooth rocks at the bottom as well as a small swimming hole before continuing north as a stream once more. A large boulder was on their side of the stream, which was just to the right of a large tree which Percy didn't recognize. Willow maybe? He pushed the thought aside.

He saw a spooky looking forest across on the other bank and for once he was glad it was sunny out. If it were nighttime he definitely wouldn't still be staying here. The forest of trees were spooky enough as it was. Nighttime around here probably would be the prime position for shooting a horror film.

Thalia had gotten out of the car and she was now taking pictures of the scene, avoiding the spooky forest. Percy and Piper followed her lead, stepping out of the car and following their companion to the river bank.

The princess turned towards the two of them as they joined her at the bank.

"This is amazing," she said. Percy and Piper both agreed. It was beautiful.

While both Percy and Piper turned towards the waterfall, Thalia turned downstream.

"Hey, what's this?" She asked.

Percy and Piper both turned as Thalia walked around the boulder. They looked at each other for a second before following.

When the two of them caught up to her they found themselves faced with a chessboard. A very large, very earthly chessboard.

No, Percy thought, not a chessboard. It wasn't quite the same. There were too many squares to start. Around fifteen squares were on each side of the overall square, each around five or six feet wide. The squares were separated with ropes and it looked like each of the corners had been excavated somewhat. That's when it hit him. This wasn't a chessboard at all. It was an archaeologist's grid.

"Tell me that isn't a bracelet."

Percy looked quickly over at the princess before looking back at the grid.

"Where?" He asked.

"Ok, starting here at this corner," Thalia started, pointing as she went, "go two rows up and three columns over to the right. You see that shiny thing?"

Percy followed her instructions as Piper said, "I see it!" Two rows up and three columns over, he thought. His eyes rested on one square in particular and sure enough a shiny silver something-or-other was gleaming in the sunlight.

"Yeah, I got it," he told her. "You think it's a bracelet? It's kind of hard to tell from here."

"It is," Piper cut in. "I've studied mine too much to recognize one on impulse."

Percy was skeptical, but he decided that if two of them thought it was a bracelet, it was at least worthwhile to check out.

"Ok," he said. "Since both of you think it is, we should at least check it out. If it is one, we'll take it along with us and then give it to whoever the fourth person is."

"Ok," Thalia said in confirmation. "But you're the one to get it."

"What? Why me?"

"You're the only guy," Piper said, teaming up with her fellow female. "Guys are supposed to do all of the heavy work, right? Plus, I don't want to go out there and twist an ankle. You see how that dirt has been tossed. I don't like the fact of going out there without knowing what I'm walking into."

"Oh, so you wouldn't dare go out there, but you'd be glad to send me on my merry way, huh?"

"Yeah, that's right," Thalia popped back in again. "You should hurry though. I don't know how long this has been vacant. We should get it while we still have the chance."

"I don't know about this 'we' thing," Percy mumbled so the girls couldn't hear. "_I_ seem to be doing all the _real _work." He figured he wouldn't win this argument anytime soon though, so he just started making his way towards the bracelet.

Percy made his way carefully, but despite Piper's worries, the ground seemed to be plenty stable. He first made his way up two rows before turning ninety degrees and heading over three columns.

Sure enough, his foot came to rest next to a bracelet just like his. It was a little dirtier, but otherwise looked the same. Instead of a trident like the one etched in his, he could see two bones crossed in an 'x.' It reminded him of a treasure map.

He reached down towards the bracelet. Just as he gripped it in his fingers, someone spoke behind him.

"Just what do you think you're doing?"

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, what did you think? You all probably can guess who it is, but hey, a cliffy is a cliffy.**

**Onto news: I will be uploading one final chapter of The Ten next Wednesday the 14th before I leave for college and you guys are either going to love me or hate me for it. I have a huge cliffhanger planned for Chapter 7 but after that I probably won't be posting on this story for a long time (maybe a month?). I will probably be adjusting to the college life as well be in the middle of the college soccer season, so I will have almost no time to do anything.**

**Speaking of college, a lot of you gave me your wishes of good luck and I thank you for that. It's always nice to know that some people actually are paying attention and realize I have a life.**

**Another thing I'd like to say is to visit littlebitclever and check out her story called The Fanfiction Guide. It's like my PSON's Guide to a Great Story, but with more detail. I've read the first couple chapters and think they're very helpful. If you're writing a story (or thinking about doing it) be sure to read her story before doing anything else.**

**Now I'm going to introduce something new I'm starting on my profile. It's called Quote Trivia and this is how it works: I will be putting a random quote down in the bottom author's note and you must tell me who said it and which book the quote took place in. Bonus points go for those who can tell me who the quote is being said to. As an FYI these will be taking the place of the trivia questions. I will still continue the Question of the Chapter, but they will not be trivia questions. Alright, here we go.**

**Who said this quote: "With great power...comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later."**

**We'll see how you guys like these and I'll decide whether to continue them or not.**

**Onto the Question of the Chapter: IF YOU HAD TO, would you rather join sides with Kronos or Gaea?**

**Easy for me. Join with Gaea. She's older, wiser and much more powerful. Her plans always have a plan within a plan and she knows exactly how to turn the demigods against one another. She has powerful monsters on her side and most of the time they are hard to kill, so this was an easy one for me.**

**So, ending off this abnormally long author's note, tell me who said the quote, who's side you would join and review the chapter obviously.**

**Make sure to review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


	7. History Professors and Unexpected Explos

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter. We passed the 200 review mark already, which is amazing.**

**Last chapter I asked you guys whether you would rather join sides with Kronos or Gaea and the results are in. With an outstanding 27-7 margin, you guys chose to side with Gaea. I can now see why she's so powerful.**

**Quote Trivia: Nico di Angelo speaking to Percy Jackson in The Last Olympian. Here are your winners (bonus points to those in _italics_): _Bookworm1756_, _SummerSpirit18_, _MidnightSeas16_, Futuregal, AGreyMood, ShimmeringDaisyFace, _numbah435spiritsong_, _JazzApples_, _Wisdoms daughter_, _awesomeness_, _DauofApollo_, Iss, _coolmango_, _Tajee165_, littlemisslaugh, _LeoLuver_, LeahTymara, Ble fotia, Smarties, raeganb123, _huntinginstars_ and two _guests_.**

**Reminder: I need both the speaker and the book for it to count. You can't assume I know what book you're talking about.**

**Onto Chapter 7. We pick right back up and you guys won't like me at the end. This chapter is dedicated to AugustSummer and the story to JazzApples.**

**Enjoy Chapter Seven of The Ten.**

**Disclaimer: Rick Riordan makes writing look easy.**

* * *

VII: HISTORY PROFESSORS AND UNEXPECTED EXPLOSIONS

Percy froze. He turned slowly to his right, finally coming full circle. What he found was a guy his age, maybe a little younger, a year at most. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed, although it was almost four o'clock. His dark black hair was messy and his skin was pale, paler than it should have been. His dark eyes were clearly awake, however, and they were staring at Percy, narrowed with suspicion.

What saved him was the distance. The guy was a good twenty or twenty-five feet away from him, which made conversation kind of difficult. Luckily Thalia was already moving and she got the guy's attention before Percy could answer. He turned in their direction and Percy, who still had the bracelet in his hand, slipped it quickly into his pocket and slowly made his way back over to the girls.

"…I don't care," the guy was saying. "If my boss comes back and sees a bunch of teens poking around at his dig site, he'll get pissed." He turned on a dime towards Percy, his left hand pointing accusingly at Percy's chest. "You. Did you take anything?"

The New Yorker put his hands up. "No," Percy said. "I thought I saw something, but it was just a wrapper, so I let it go." Thalia and Piper were both looking at their comrade with interest, but they let it go, knowing he had lied to preserve the bracelet.

The guy didn't seem to believe him, but he let it go. "Alright, fine," he said, looking back and forth between Percy and the girls. "What are you doing here anyway?"

Thalia was about to respond when suddenly Percy cut her off.

"We were looking for you," he said, swiftly bringing out the bracelet in one motion.

"So you did take something!"

"Percy! What are you doing?" That was Thalia.

"Look at his ring," Percy said unfazed by either of them, tossing the bracelet towards the girls. "And then look at the symbol etched there."

Piper caught the bracelet and Thalia looked over her shoulder as the two girls looked at the design and then up towards the ring on the South African's finger. Thalia figured it out first.

"They're both bones," she said slowly.

"Exactly."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Just what is going on here?"

Percy turned towards the only other guy in the clearing and looked him in his eyes.

"Do you want the short version or the long version?" He asked.

"Short version, please."

"Alright," Percy started, taking a deep breath. "The world is in trouble. There's this guy who wants to take over. We're not exactly sure how he is going to do it, but he is going to try somehow. Scattered throughout the world are ten kids, ten teenagers that have to bond together to fight against this guy and try to save the world. We each have a bracelet. I have mine, Thalia and Piper have theirs. We're supposed to find ten people and ten bracelets. Supposedly we only have a year to do all of this and we're already almost two months in. The three of us are the first three of those ten. We need to find the others as fast as we can or else the world is going to be destroyed."

"That's the short version?" The guy asked. "Gods forbid I have to hear the long version."

Percy ignored the sarcasm. "Alright? You get what's going on?"

"Ok, let's pretend that what you're saying is true for a second here. What does that have to do with me?"

Percy sighed in exasperation for a second and that opened the door for Thalia.

"Are you that blind?" She said. "We're the first three. We find a fourth bracelet and suddenly you show up. The light bulb going off now?"

"You think I'm the fourth member."

"Well, duh. It doesn't take a Seaweed Brain to figure that one out."

For some reason Percy felt as if he should get offended by that statement, but he wasn't sure why. He let it go and came back into the conversation.

"Ok, you said you work here, right?"

"Yeah," the guy replied. "Well, sort of. It's an internship when I'm not in school. I've worked here for the entire year, heading back to the beginning of last semester."

"Ok," Percy said. "Then if you've been here so long, why haven't you noticed the bracelet before?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, everything else is cleaned," he said, motioning around the clearing. "There are no other items lying around on the cleared areas. You saw where I picked the bracelet up. There's no way you guys would have passed over it. It's sterling silver."

"Alright, fine. I agree it couldn't have been there before. But you're saying it just appeared out of nowhere?"

"I don't know how it got there," Percy admitted. "But you were the only one other than the three of us that was here when we found it. I've learned to follow my gut during these couple months and it's saying that you're next. Your skull ring helps me believe my gut even more."

Their supposed-to-be-fourth comrade was yet to be convinced.

"So what?" He said. "Your bracelet just happens to have a set of crossed bones on it. How exactly does that connect with me?"

"Your ring has a skull on it," Piper said. "This bracelet is etched with a picture of some bones. They're both relating the same thing. You've _got_ to see the connection."

For a second the guy nodded a little bit, as if in understanding. For a second, Percy thought they had convinced him, but then he shook his head quickly, as if trying to clear a bad thought.

"Whoa, wait a minute," he said. "That doesn't mean anything. You guys are still talking nonsense to me. I'm surprised my boss hasn't gotten here yet." The guy looked behind them over their shoulders, as if looking to see if another car had pulled up.

Percy resisted the urge to look over his shoulder and thought hard. How on earth was he going to convince this guy?

"You said you were a student?" Thalia asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Okay, so I'm assuming that your school has a library of some sort, right? Something we can use to look up some history?"

"No, actually we're one of the only schools that doesn't have a library. Although if you want history, we can ask my professor. He knows almost everything about the subject."

"Alright," Thalia replied. "Let's go pay him a visit then."

"Now?" The guy exclaimed.

"Yes, now," Thalia said sternly. A couple cars pulled up on the edge of the grid.

"But my boss just showed up." The three of them could clearly tell he was trying to come up with an excuse to stay.

"Just say you have something you have to do for school," Piper pleaded with him. "You're in an internship. It's not like you're being paid for this."

"You're right. It's not like I'm being paid for this." The guy walked off, but the three of them were looking at each other, confused. The guy seemed in a trance, but Piper hadn't done anything other than talk to him. Percy wearily took another half-step away from the Los Angeleno.

The guy came back and the three of them braced themselves for another trance response, but the guy spoke normally.

"Ugh, fine. Let's get this over with. This internship is my route to a job, so let's make this quick."

* * *

Percy drove, the girls riding in the back as the guy gave him directions. Halfway to his school they introduced themselves and they found out his name was Nico.

Yeah, weird right? Talk to a guy for an hour and only then learn his name. Not the most traditional way of introduction, but it still was effective.

"Get off here," Nico said after a couple more minutes. They had been driving on a highway.

"Centurion?" Piper asked, referencing the exit sign. "Isn't that a rank of a Roman soldier?"

"Wouldn't know," Thalia said. "Not really into Roman armed forces."

Percy shrugged and took the exit. Within ten minutes they had pulled over to the side of the road, next to a small looking university.

"Alright," he said. "Now what?" The three so-called veterans looked over at their new comrade.

"I'll need one of you to come with me."

"Only one? Why?"

Nico twisted around to take a glance into the backseat. "This is Centurion, not New York City. You don't magically make three new friends here."

"Alright," Thalia said. "I vote Percy."

"Make that two votes for Percy," Piper put in.

Percy rolled his eyes. Nico looked at him.

"They do that normally?" He asked.

"How do you think I got chosen to get the bracelet?" Percy replied. "Come on, let's get this over with."

The two guys exited the car and Nico led the way into one of the buildings. Percy followed him down a hallway for around a minute before Nico stopped in front of a door.

"Come on," he said. "I think he's in-between classes."

Percy followed him down into the lecture hall. About halfway down the professor noticed them.

"Oh, Mr. di Angelo? This is a pleasant surprise. How may I help you?"

"Hello, Dr. Hiwasl. This is one of my friends from back home, Percy Jackson. He had a question about history and I figured I'd take him to you while he was in town."

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Jackson," the professor said, extending his hand.

"Likewise," Percy responded, returning the handshake.

"So, you have a question on history?"

Percy nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Then let's hear it."

"One of my cousins from over in the states was telling me about a certain group of Greeks called The Ten. He was telling me that there wasn't much known about them, so I was figuring Nico would probably know more, seeing as he's aspiring to become an archaeologist and studying ancient bones. But that wasn't the case, so he led me here. Have you heard about anything of that sort?"

"The Ten, you say?" Dr. Hiwasl said. "I have heard of the Greek legend about them, although I've got to admit there isn't much info. What do you want to know?"

"Anything about the members themselves. Like what did they do, where did they come from, et cetera."

"Hmm, alright. A lot of sources pinned The Ten as being from all over the ancient country. I think they had a warrior from Sparta, a philosopher from Athens, so on so forth. The major one around here was the guy from the southern section of Greece. They said he was one of the youngest, short in stature, great with bones."

"So, what?" Percy asked. "He was an ancient archaeologist?"

"Not exactly," the professor said. "He had a way with bones, they said, but it wasn't a profession for him. No one really knew what he did, to be honest. Other than that I don't really know anything else."

Percy swore his companion got even paler after that.

"Alright, thanks," he said. "Would there be any place I could get more info on the subject?"

The professor took a couple seconds to answer, his right hand stroking his beard.

"On a subject like that, you'd be best off with a large library. There's very little known about the subject, but you could still find something hidden in a library. I'd suggest the library back in Johannesburg. That would probably be your best bet."

"Thanks so much, sir," Percy told him. "You've been a huge help."

"You're welcome," the professor replied. "If you ever need any more help, don't hesitate to contact Mr. di Angelo again. I'll be glad to help."

"Alright. Thanks again."

With that, Percy turned from the professor, starting to head up the stairs. He practically had to drag Nico up the stairs, but he was unsure why. The professor had said something that had rattled his companion's nerves.

The second they got out of the door, Percy turned towards Nico.

"Yo, dude, what's up? Are you okay?"

"Alright," he replied. "I believe you now. I'll come with you guys."

Percy's eyes widened a little at the sudden change of heart.

"Why the quick change?"

Nico looked over his shoulder, back down into the lecture hall at his professor. He stared for a second or two before looking back at Percy.

"I'll explain later," he told the New Yorker. "I need a little time to think. Let's get to this library and I'll sort out my thoughts on the way there."

Percy was surprised, but he went with it. The two guys made their way back to the car, startling the girls as they got back.

"What-"

"How-"

Percy cut both of the girls off.

"Library in Johannesburg," he said. "We got some info. Think it helped. We'll see what we can get here at the library before moving on."

"Alright," Thalia replied. "Let's get going then."

Percy started the car and they took off, making a U-turn that was most likely illegal. After another thirty or forty minutes they found the library, but there was absolutely no parking for a couple blocks so they parked far away and had to walk.

The foursome ended up directly opposite the library, across a two-lane road. After looking both ways, the four of them started to cross the road, being sure there weren't any cars in the area to hit them. About halfway across, Thalia nudged Percy and pointed across to the other side.

"Look," she said. "Tell me that guy doesn't look shifty."

Indeed he did. The guy was dressed in jeans and a gray hoodie, the hood pulled up way over his head, and he was wearing sunglasses that shaded his eyes.

A few moments later a second guy joined him, sprinting out of the library, and the two of them doubled it down the road, rounding a corner out of sight.

Percy was about to shrug and say, 'Hey, it's the inner city,' but he never got the chance.

Seconds later, the library exploded.

* * *

**A/N:**

**So, what did you think? Told you guys you wouldn't like me.**

**Chapter 8 will be uploaded...sometime in the future? I currently have no idea when I will even be able to write, much less upload, but we'll go along as it happens.**

**Other news: I will be finishing up The Prince, The Girl and The World this week, so if you haven't been following along with that, you will have the chance to read the entire story.**

**Also, this week I came up with a new idea for a story. It will be called Demigod Celebrities and you can find the summary on my website. The link is on my profile page.**

**Now to Quote Trivia. Who said this quote: "Hey cuz," [he] said. "Welcome back to the States."**

**I need the speaker and the book. Bonus points are for the recipient(s).**

**Onto the Question of the Chapter: Would you rather get into a verbal argument with Octavian or a duel with Clarisse?**

**This is another easy one for me. Duel with Clarisse. I'm horrible with words and especially coming up with them on impulse. Octavian would destroy me, so I'm choosing the physical beating.**

**Make sure to review!**

**Thanks!**

**-PSON**


End file.
